LTO7 Tapes

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lxsw20

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#179297 3-Sep-2015 11:39

Hi

We currently have an LTO5 drive that looks like it doesn't have a lot of life left in it. So probably a good time to upgrade. I have seen on a few roadmaps that state LTO7 should/might be out this year. Is anyone hearing anything about a possible release at all?

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fishandchips

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#1378982 3-Sep-2015 12:26

We are going through a overhaul of our backup solution and going with LTO 6 drives as we have been told the LTO 7 drives would be out of our price range. The jump from LTO 5 to LTO 6 drives was bad enough, I would hate to think what the LTO 7 drives are going to cost. I would have loved to get LTO 7 just for the write speed alone, nearly double that of 6.

Inphinity

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#1378985 3-Sep-2015 12:31

I have heard of a few manufacturers/distributors overseas allowing you to 'pre purchase' LTO 7 tapes & drives - essentially getting you an LTO6 device & media now, on the basis you can trade it back for LTO7 equivalents upon a release. Unsure if any in NZ are offering this, and I haven't got any pricing, though, and I suspect it will be a considerable jump over LTO6.

Ragnor

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#1379777 4-Sep-2015 14:17

Why bother with tape anymore when NAS units and/or external drives (USB3 or eSATA) are so cheap these days?

Inphinity

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#1379789 4-Sep-2015 14:36

Ragnor: Why bother with tape anymore when NAS units and/or external drives (USB3 or eSATA) are so cheap these days?

Harder to take NASes offsite daily, way too cumbersome to have enough USB drives.

lxsw20

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#1379796 4-Sep-2015 14:40

Because by the time you have 120TB or so stored offsite (Daily, Monthly, Yearly tapes) HDD storage doesn't add up cost wise, tape is around $25 per TB with LTO5.

It's only one of a few backup methods we have inc Offsite San with full VM replicas replicas.

networkn

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#1379805 4-Sep-2015 14:55

Ragnor: Why bother with tape anymore when NAS units and/or external drives (USB3 or eSATA) are so cheap these days?

HDD's are stupidly unreliable compared to tape (stored properly). Also considerably more expensive to archive using disk, compared to tape. Tape more convenient to transfer offsite.

In the past 5 years, I have replaced 6 TAPES under warranty, I have probably replaced 10 USB External Hard Disks in the past 3 months.

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BTR

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#1379844 4-Sep-2015 15:32

Threw my HP LTO5 tape drive in the skip years ago. Moved to DAS and NAS units. Although our site has multiple buildings enabling us to have our servers split between buildings.

lxsw20

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#1379845 4-Sep-2015 15:35

So do we, but that would not be cost effective for archive storage for us. Maybe it is for you.

wasabi2k

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#1379854 4-Sep-2015 15:49

Yeah, NAS/DAS is not an effective solution when you are maintaining backups for 7 years plus and have secure offsite storage.

We have VTL onsite (replicated between DCs) for systems we restore from often, than it taken off weekly to tape and stored offsite.

Most systems are daily to tape and stored with a provider offsite.

TAPE IS DEAD has been bleated for 10 years or so - it fills a role and does it really well. Just because a technology doesn't fit with your use case doesn't mean it is useless or dead.

UncleArthur

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#1379893 4-Sep-2015 16:43

One major advantage tape has is "offline" backup.
I read of an Aussie company a while back, they had online backups spread around Aussie.

Mr disgruntled admin, nuked the offsite backups from his desk, nuked production data, and walked out the door.

He's now in jail, but that didn't stop the company folding.

Had they had offsite and offline tapes, the company would still be here.

Homer: "Son, you tried and you failed....the lesson is...never try"

networkn

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#1379894 4-Sep-2015 16:45

UncleArthur: On major advantage tape has is "offline" backup.
I read of an Aussie company a while back, they had online backups spread around Aussie.

Mr disgruntled admin, nuked the offsite backups from his desk, nuked production data, and walked out the door.

He's now in jail, but that didn't stop the company folding.

Had they had offsite and offline tapes, the company would still be here.

Not to mention things like Cryptolocker, which I have heard whisperings of it attacking and doing bad things in an upcomming release, to the likes of Shadowprotect images etc, stored on a NAS, or sync'd seems horrible.

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lxsw20

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#1387876 15-Sep-2015 13:36

For anyone interested.

http://www.storagereview.com/lto_program_announces_generation_7_specifications