Six Excuses to Keep Tape Backup Around Longer Than You Should

If your business is still using tape backup, we’ve got news for you: you’re behind the times by a decade or two. Still, there might be some merits to using it, despite the overwhelming evidence that digital backup solutions like Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) are all-around better. Here’s why you might still use tape backup in today’s modern business world.

The Shaky Case for Tape Backup

In most cases, businesses will prioritize redundancy… and the solutions that help them achieve it.

Naturally, this has led businesses away from tape and more in the direction of digital backup solutions. With tape, there’s more room for error on both the technical and user side of things. All that said, however, tape does have merits worth discussing.

Here are the noteworthy reasons (or rather, excuses) for why businesses might keep tape around longer than it needs to be:

Reliability and Longevity

Tape wouldn’t have been a thing for so long if it wasn’t reliable. It can last for a long time, too, as long as it’s maintained under the appropriate conditions.

Long-Term Storage Potential

If you want to store large amounts of data for long periods of time, tape backup accomplishes this goal. While you might spend a pretty penny on the infrastructure, the costs of maintaining a system like this are lower than some other storage methods.

Data Retention and Regulations

Even if other backup solutions have the edge on tape, it still meets the compliances and regulations of various industries, organizations, and entities. 

Large Data Sets

If you work with large amounts of data, you might find your bandwidth limitations get in the way of effectively using a cloud-based backup tool. Tape backup doesn’t have this problem, though, as it’s all backed up locally onto the tape.

Legacy Systems

If you’re using tape, chances are you have a legacy system or two as well that you just can’t bring yourself to upgrade away from. Tape backup affords you some wiggle room while you make big changes to your infrastructure.

Offline Backups

Finally, you might find yourself in need of a physical, on-site backup disconnected from your infrastructure. This can help you protect your assets if you encounter a seriously bad issue, like a system failure, natural disaster, or a hacking attack.

But Why Not BDR?

Look, we can’t tell you about the benefits of tape without also saying that BDR does it all, but better.

A Backup and Disaster Recovery solution takes incremental backups of your data every 15 minutes, bypassing the issues that you might run into with large data sets. These backups are stored both on and off-site in secure locations, including the cloud and an off-site data center. You can be confident that your data is as redundant as possible, especially when you’re facing down a serious threat that could end an unprepared business.

To get started with BDR, give ImageSys LLC a call at 301-740-9955 today.