Alternatives to tape backup

You may ask, isn't tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? In many ways it is, but because of the nature of backup it doesn't really matter that tape is slow and sequential-access. Remember, tape is cheap. Businesses use tape because they find it to be a cost-effective backup solution.

However, if you have any problems with tape backup, you'll probably be interested to know that there are several alternatives to tape.

Often, people think of tape as a dinosaur when compared to the new range of fast, direct-access storage media. Yet tape is ideal for backup. Businesses use tape because they find it to be a cost-effective backup solution, and tape backup will continue to be used for some time to come. Nonetheless, you'll probably be interested to know that there are several alternatives to tape, some of which may be more suitable for your business.

Backup to NAS devices

NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are attached directly to your network and can act as a backup store. Obviously, it's very convenient to backup to NAS and retrieve files; there's no disks or tapes or insert and remove, and NAS devices can be treated as just another server. There are many NAS devices specially designed for small businesses. Excellent for network backup.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices are attached directly to your network and can act as a backup store. Obviously, it's very convenient to backup files to NAS, as there's no disks or tapes or insert and remove. There are many NAS devices specially designed for small businesses. An excellent choice for network backup.

Backup to REV drive

In April 2004, Iomega released the REV drive - a new storage device that has greater capacity than tape and is 5 to 8 times faster. Key features are:

• Server backup to REV drive is much faster than tape
• The removable REV drive units are more durable
• No cleaning is required
• The REV drive gives you random-access

• backup to REV drive is much faster than tape backup and have higher capacity
• REV drive units are more durable than tape
• While tape requires regular cleaning, no cleaning is required for REV drive units

Backup to REV drive may in fact prove more cost-effective for your business than tape, depending on your backup scheme and other factors. Otherwise, backup to REV is very similar to tape backup in principle.

Backup to REV drive may in fact prove more cost-effective for your business than tape, depending on your backup scheme and other factors. Otherwise, REV backup is very similar to tape backup in principle.

Final notes

Several reliable backup solutions exist. Choosing one is simply a case of deciding which is most suitable for your business. As always, invest in a quality backup program. Rather than purchasing specialist REV backup software and NAS backup software, your choice in software should allow backup to numerous devices. You will then be able to change your backup hardware in the future without buying new software.

As always, invest in a quality backup program. Many backup program will support a number of backup devices, so there's no need to buy specialist REV backup software or NAS backup software.

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