The topic of data growth and security continues to be a challenge for several organizations. The question to “air-gap” or not to “air-gap” is systematically being posed across all industries as they think about a solid backup and archive strategy. Once it involves how and where to invest, air-gapping becomes the last item on the checklist, and understandably so. Data keeps growing and whereas budgets might increase slightly, IT resources are forecasted to remain flat, according to IDC. With such a big amount of avant-garde technologies out there, it appears tape is shrinking in its usage. However, tape’s distinctive ability (despite its advanced age) to morph into a sustainably green, secure, and extremely cost-efficient alternative to different backup and archive solutions permits it to remain relevant – even over cloud alternatives. I’d say a rebound may be on the horizon…
So what’s the chill factor?
As in weather, the wind chill will verify how cold it feels on your skin once the wind is factored in. Likewise, organizations nowadays should perceive their data to see how hot or cold it’s to leverage the acceptable storage solution that’s efficient yet price effective. Much of the data in additional expensive primary storage is cold. Cold data is just sometimes used data. IDC estimates that about 400th of the 7.5 ZB of data are commercially connected and of that, about 60 minutes are cold data or data with expected retrieval of larger than thirty days. This data may be a good candidate for tape storage in your data center or within the cloud. And hey, cold storage doesn’t need a great deal of power and cooling.
Security
Tape continues to be the de facto to secure your cold storage/long-term data. Fact is, the physical air-gap between tapes and the network merely doesn’t allow malware/ransomware or hackers to break through to reach offline data. The goal of these evil agents is to destabilize and destroy the ability to self-recover and then demand a ransom. We’ve heard several stories and firms withdrawing from business because of the vulnerability of keeping all data online. Whereas any online data is destroyed by an eventual hacker, the data stored firmly on tape is untouched with its integrity intact.
Considering each cost and damage created by these attacks, and the astronomical hit on your resources and valuable time that would be spent on managing important data, there are quite enough reasons to make the best protection of your crucial data on tape. Sure, you’ll keep cold data on hot disk, however, the simplest approach is to tier it off to the foremost cost-efficient alternative – tape. That’s why we extremely suggest the 3-2-1-1 approach to protection. At the end of the day, what matters is “are you able to recover?”. If your data is chilled, there’s no reason to tremble.
Economics
Determining the worth of your data can assist you to perceive the ultimate storage solution needed. Never underestimate the worth of your historical data. We live in a world where our “always online” approach to life opens the door to a barrage of threats. The great news is, economics is on your facet. Tape remains the cheapest price for storage on the market nowadays, and the predictable future. At less than $50/TB, as long as data is preserved on tape, it’ll provide you with a very cheap total cost of ownership (TCO).
Taking these factors into consideration can bring a tiering approach to your backup and archive strategy and enable the right protection approach for the kind of data in need of saving, cooling, and securing.
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