Tape Drives and Remote Data Backup

The data is the life-blood of any organisation today. When this digital data is suddenly lost and becomes inaccessible to the company, it is nothing less than a disaster. Indeed, many businesses cease to exist every year due to data loss.

It is imperative therefore for any company to keep a backup of its crucial data. This is very important for all businesses, but more so for organisations such as hospitals, airlines, research and development agencies, defence establishments, banks, insurance companies and so on.

There are two main ways of storing data backup - offline and online. In the former, the backup is taken on any of the various digital storage media devices available in the market, such as Flash drives, optical drives (compact disks and digital video disks) and portable hard disks. The primary media for taking offline backups though is a tape drive. The original data residing inside computer hard disks as well as its backup taken on removable storage media, both usually stay inside the same office premises.

Online data backup is a new concept. In this, the data backup is transferred outside the office through the Internet and stored on a remote server existing far away, maybe on a different continent. Both online and offline backups have their advantages and disadvantages.

Data Backup on Tape Drives

Traditionally, data backup in an office has been taken on magnetic tape drives. These represent a tried and tested technology that has been around for decades. Tape drives store data in small plastic cartridges just like analogue music is stored on audio cassettes. The cartridges are nothing but a tough plastic casing inside which is enclosed a long length of tape coated with magnetic paint.

This tape is wound across two spools. The cartridge has to be inserted inside a tape drive which has a read-and-write head. The spools are spun around in tandem by the drive motor and the tape moves forward or backward brushing past the head. The latter consists of an electro-magnet that reads, writes, modifies and deletes data.

The major benefit of tape drives is their reliability. They rarely fail. If a particular section of the tape has become bad, then the file residing on that particular patch is affected. The rest of the data can still be recovered without any problem. The other benefit is their cost. Tape drives are quite cheap to purchase. Once bought, they give trouble-free service for years. This reliability and cheap cost of operations is what make tape drives such a winning data backup product.

Tape drives have many disadvantages too, compared to online backup. The biggest drawback is that you have to take data backup manually each time. You have to physically connect the drive to the computer, insert cartridges and wait patiently until the data is transferred. If the data generated every day is huge or there are a number of computers, then this may take hours and a person has to be specially deputed at the office to take care of the daily backup.

Another major problem with tape-drive backup is that the cartridges bearing data are mostly stored in the same building somewhere. When a natural or man-made disaster strikes, the original data residing on computers as well as the tape cartridges, both are destroyed, leaving the user in the lurch.

Online Data Backup

Online backup is the perfect answer to the drawbacks of tape drives. In this, the data backup is taken automatically by a smart software that resides on client's computers. On a fixed time every day - or as many times as you want - the client-side software comes alive and starts copying files that have been updated since the last backup.

Once copied, the data is sent across the Internet to the remote servers for safe keeping. This way, the backup remains safe even when the client's building is gutted in a fire or damaged by other disasters such as floods. The client has a password that can be used to download the backup onto his computers anytime he wants.

Online data backup has drawbacks too. The main disadvantage is of price. Online data backup service providers charge according to per MB of data stored. Add to this the cost of sending data over wires every day, and the bill can really tot up to a substantial amount.

The other problem with this type of backup is data security. Your most precious and confidential data resides on servers far way over whom you have absolutely no control. This can be an uncomfortable thought for many businesses, though it must be said that most service providers take great care to secure their servers with multiple firewalls and user identification systems.