What Tape Backup Drives Solution Is Best For Your Computer or Network?

Before you set up any form of tape backup drives on your system you must decide what backup strategy to use and what tape drive system best suits your needs.

What requirement do you have?
Is it for a LAN server, a PC or is it for a networks at a large corporation?
Do you need scalability for you're the backup drives you want to use?
Will the tape standard live on in coming versions or will it be outdated by new technologies?

Tape backup technologies have to keep up with the ever increasing capacity of disk drives which is an alternative and attractive way to backup and secure data with.

High capacity solution for businesses are often based on backup tape libraries.

Still, by using tape drives you have an easy and convenient way to backup server data for small and medium sized companies. Tape backup drives are use one of two different computer bus interfaces, SCSI or IDE
SCSI or (Small Computer System Interface) is a controller bus which is often used in server tape backup system for computers.
The SCSI interface is an intelligent interface which use an independent processor controller based I/O bus. Because SCSI support multithreading it also supports the multitasking capabilities of Windows, UNIX and LINUX.

The IDE family or (Integrated Drive Electronics) is the most common I/O bus for PCs. Tape drives based on the Enhanced IDE or EIDE bus also know as ATA are generally cheaper than tape backup based on SCSI bus interface. This bus standard is commonly used in PCs for tape devices.

The backup methods used in tape devices are performed using either a linear tape or a helical scan technology.

Linear tape technology records as the data by writing it in a linear continuing pattern in the tape. The most popular tape formats for linear recording are DLT, LTO and Travan.

Helical scan tapes are written using a method in which the data are recorded in an angle over the tape thus making the recording track substantially longer which makes this a tape backup technology for a high density capacity. This is also the method also used in ordinary VCR tapes for video purposes. DAT and AIT are two of the most used helical tape recording standards.

QIC
QIC quarter-inch cartridge linear tape drives was the most common computer tape backup method used until the mid 90, after that time this technology have been outdated. QIC is based on a tape cartridge technology developed by the 3M Company.
There exist a large number of QIC standards. QIC have a capacity between 80MB and up to 2 GB.

Travan
Travan tape backup devices are based on a linear tape technology.
Travan was developed by Imation and is marketed by Seagate Technology. Travan NS, NS stands for Network Service, is an inexpensive tape backup device for the small and medium company.
HP Colorado Backup systems supports both QIC and Travan.

DAT
DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is a helical scan tape recording technology that was original developed for high quality audio recording. Sony and HP defined the DDS (Digital Data Storage) standard which is a standard for data backup device using the DAT technology. The latest DDS-4 standard provides 20 GB of storage capacity. This standard is not planed for any further development.

8mm
Similar to the DAT technology, the 8mm uses 8mm tape instead of DAT's 4mm tape. Exabyte Corporation is a promoter for the standard 8mm backup tape drives. 8mm uses a helical scan backup drive technology. With tape capacity from 3.5 to 14 GB.

Mammoth
Exebyte Mammoth tape storage is a top end tape backup market product for the corporation market. It is based on an integrated tape recorder solution with few moving parts and with a high tape data density. Mammoth 2 have a capacity of 60GB with 150GB compressed and with a data rate of 12MBps. It uses a helical scan format technology and tape drive technology with few moving part to minimize tape stress. Exabyte are developing Mammoth-3 which will have a capacity of 625GB and data transfer rate of 60MBps. Mammoth uses two-level Reed-Solomon ECC (Error Correction Code).

AIT technology
AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) introduced by Seagate and Sony is based on 8mm technology and represent a new 8mm technology known as Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT). AIT-3 can store 100GB, 260GB compressed with a 12 MBps data rate. Increased rewind and positioning access time for fast access of data segments. This is possible while the cartridge contains a built in chip for data tape positioning.

Digital Linear Tape DLT
DLT or Digital Linear Tape was developed by DEC in the mid-1980 for MicroVAX mini computers. It is a linear tape technology which uses several tracks for storage. Between 128 and 208 tracks per tape using a half-inch tape width. DLT is a popular technology for backup tape drives and it is being favored by Compact.

The DLT 8000 have a storage capacity of 40GB and data transfer rate of 6 MBps.

SuperDLT is the most technical advanced tape system in the DLT family. The SDLT320 have a capacity of 320GB compressed and with a 32 Mbps data transfer rate. This is expected to rise to 2.4TB with SDLT2400.

DLT1 both from Benchmark Storage Innovation delivers similar storage capacity as DLT8000 at a lower cost. The tradeoff is a lower transfer rate of 3Mbps.

ValueTape 80 tape backup drive also from Benchmark Storage Innovation is compatible with DLT Tape IV and can read Quantum DLT4000 tape backup drives. It has a capacity of 20GB.

ADR technology
ADR technology Advanced Digital Recording technology was developed by Philips and is market by OnStream. It was first introduced in 1999 with an IDE tape backup drive that have a capacity of 15 GB, 30GB compressed. It uses 192 tracks on a linear backup drive with 8mm tape width. It reads and writes on 8 tracks simultaneously to achieve a high data transfer speed.
It has outstanding data reliability because it reads 8 tracks simultaneously which lower the demand of the tape speed and it uses strong error correction coding.

Linear Tape Open
LTO or (Linear Tape Open) is as its name implies a linear tape backup driver technology. This technology has been developed in a consortium by Seagate, IBM and HP. There are two formats for LTO Ultrium and Accelis. They serve different needs and are not compatible.

Accelis format have a fast access time. Accelis is waiting to be introduced but have extreme data access time as it is expected to have a capacity of 25 GB, 50 GB compressed when it is introduced.

Utrium single-reel format for backup have an ultra high capacity. 100GB per cartridge and a 16Mbps transfer speed. It is planed to store up to 1.6TB compressed on a single cartridge and will have a transfer speeds between 160-320MBps.

LTO is linear multi-channel, bi-directional formats and uses error correction code for maximum capacity and performance. LTO is now the tape backup device system which have the currently the most market acceptance at the high end market.

VXA technology
VXA is a helical tape backup device technology which is aimed to solve the problem of slow data transfer which can be caused when the data bus and CPU is to slow to communicate or busy. While most tape drives for backup write a chunks of block of data at a time, slowdown can occur when the drive have to wait for next data block as the tape have to be retracted.
The VXA uses a wrapper technology for data blocks by dividing them into smaller data units. They call this method Discrete Packet Format (DPF).
It is a highly reliable technology which has been developed by ExaByte. This is the same company which markets the Mammoth tape drives.
VXA-2 has a capacity of 80GB and 160GB compressed with a speed rate of up to 6MBps.

Learn more about tape backup strategies!

Small business strategic tape backup planning!

Which tape backup drive is the best for your needs?
For a LAN and a corporate backup need LTO is a good chose. This technology has support from major players.

Multi-channel recording, error correction capabilities and scalability makes it a technology for future use.

Data backup tapes!

Paragon Drive Backup Utility!