Archiving and tape backup
There is a reason why tape backup technology has stuck around as long as it has: It works. See how tape vendors keep up in a changing market and what developments have made tape the ultimate archiving tool. Garner tips from experts on how to get the most out of tape backup, as well as some best practices.
Top Stories
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News
08 Sep 2023
150 TB IBM tapes hit the market
IBM's new enterprise tape drive brings 50 TB of native capacity and 150 TB compressed for archiving large amounts of data and is a sign of investment in an old storage medium. Continue Reading
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Feature
28 Jun 2023
7 data archiving best practices for backup admins
Among retention policies, regulatory compliance and limited storage budgets, knowing what data to keep is critical. Follow these seven best practices for a solid archiving strategy. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2023
LTO tape shipments continued to grow in 2022
Driven by data growth and the uptick in ransomware, tape continues to excel as a storage medium despite newer kids on the block. Experts don't see that trend ending anytime soon. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Apr 2023
What the new LTO roadmap means for tape storage
The future of tape is bright, and it should be on every storage manager's shortlist. LTO and its massive current and future capacity have a place among other storage media types. Continue Reading
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News
16 Feb 2023
Spectra Logic introduces multimedia auto-tiering for archives
Spectra Logic helps users manage archives with new software integration and auto-tiering into hardware or software. It's also partnering with Wasabi on more storage options. Continue Reading
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Tip
20 Dec 2022
Use magnetic tape backup to ease storage capacity concerns
Does your organization struggle to store and protect all its data? Magnetic tape storage might be a smart, cost-efficient route, as data volumes continue to increase. Continue Reading
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News
07 Nov 2022
Commvault Metallic adds archive to cloud service
Commvault added a standalone cloud file and object archive service to its Metallic SaaS to help tackle unstructured data growth and the associated costs. Continue Reading
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News
28 Sep 2022
LTO Program looks to surpass 1.4 PB per tape
The LTO Program laid out an updated roadmap showing that tape could break the 1 petabyte barrier within the next decade, keeping pace with ever-growing data storage needs. Continue Reading
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News
31 Aug 2022
Folio Photonics sees optical disk as alternative for archive
Folio Photonics has increased the layers of optical disk, lowering the cost and increasing the capacity while delivering higher performance than LTO tapes. Continue Reading
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News
29 Aug 2022
XenData's tape workaround cuts out egress fees
To help customers avoid costly egress and geo-replication fees, XenData has introduced a new tape archive appliance for local copies that can be moved at much lower costs. Continue Reading
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Answer
22 Jul 2022
Future of tape backup built on consistent advancements
Tape still plays a key role in backup, including offline protection from ransomware. What are some key improvements that will keep tape backup relevant in the future? Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2022
Fujifilm to raise some LTO tape prices 5% this fall
Fujifilm will hike the price of some of its older and most popular LTO tapes Oct. 1. It's hoping the monthslong lead up time will help companies better plan. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Jun 2022
What's driving the resurgence in tape storage use?
Tape storage use has had a recent revival as a result of its air-gapped protection from ransomware. But that's not the only reason why businesses use the legacy technology. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Jun 2022
Storage media showdown: The benefits of tape vs. disk backup
Tape and disk are established as reliable backup storage, but which one is best for your organization? Consider factors such as cost, performance and security in your decision. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 May 2022
Use data classification to protect data, aid backup compliance
Following strict compliance regulations can result in high storage costs. Use data classification for backup retention to sift through affected data without breaking the bank. Continue Reading
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News
20 Apr 2022
LTO tape capacity shipments rose sharply in 2021
Shipped LTO capacity and media unit shipments increased in 2021. Ransomware protection and the release of LTO-9 were among the reasons for the jump, analysts said. Continue Reading
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News
14 Apr 2022
XenData's X100 provides 100-plus PB active archive
XenData's X100 brings an active archive to market that's designed to target the explosive growth in unstructured data, such as customers in media and entertainment. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Mar 2022
What is data vaulting and how does it shape modern backups?
Data vaulting methods, such as air gapping and active archives, help isolate and protect data backups from malicious deletion or accidental data loss. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Dec 2021
Get to know the Microsoft Teams retention policies
Microsoft Teams retention policies can ensure that critical data is not accidentally deleted too early, and unnecessary data doesn't take up space longer than it needs to. Continue Reading
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News
02 Nov 2021
Quantum tape libraries gain remote eject capability
Quantum introduced Ransom Block to its Scalar tape libraries, allowing customers to remotely eject tape magazines and prevent cyber criminals from accessing the data within. Continue Reading
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News
05 Oct 2021
Quantum unveils ActiveScale on-prem archiving service
Quantum's new product combines ActiveScale object storage and Quantum tape to deploy a petabyte-scale cold storage environment within customers' on-prem data centers. Continue Reading
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News
20 Sep 2021
LTO tape capacity shipments dip, but expected to rise
The return of businesses to the office plus tape's protection against cyber attacks should help increase LTO shipments. In addition, LTO-9 recently launched with higher capacity. Continue Reading
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News
10 Sep 2021
IBM leads parade of vendors delivering LTO-9 tape drives
While sales of tape drives faltered in 2020, IBM and a handful of storage vendors hope to fuel a comeback with delivery of new offerings that ascribe to the LTO-9 specifications. Continue Reading
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News
10 Aug 2021
StorOne serves up backup storage for America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen uses Rubrik to store backups and snapshots in the cloud, then archives older data to an on-premises StorOne appliance for faster and cheaper retrieval. Continue Reading
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Tip
05 Aug 2021
Protect NAS device backups with these tips
NAS devices provide reliable data storage for businesses of all sizes. Backing up that data requires organizations to implement additional data protection efforts. Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2021
When long-term data archiving means 'forever'
Storage customers such as the German data processing service center GWDG have started to think about how they can archive data forever. It's challenging and complex, but possible. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jul 2021
XenData links up tape archives with S3 interface
XenData launched an object storage interface for its LTO archives, along with a new synchronization service that consolidates multiple archives into a single, global repository. Continue Reading
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Answer
18 Mar 2021
Which backup standards guide a data protection strategy?
A strong data protection strategy must follow applicable standards and regulations to protect data and comply with privacy laws. What are some key standards to look out for? Continue Reading
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News
11 Mar 2021
FalconStor's turnaround prospects see glimmer of progress
FalconStor's annual revenue continues to slump, but an increase in net income, new customer bookings and a renewed focus on cloud data storage bring hope to the company. Continue Reading
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News
02 Mar 2021
Nexsan launches cloud edition of Assureon immutable vault
Nexsan Assureon can now be deployed on Azure and private clouds, no longer tying its immutable storage and active archive capabilities to Unity appliances. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jan 2021
Potential magnetic tape storage capacity surges in 'renaissance'
Tape technology continues to improve, resulting in huge possibilities for capacity. With data growth, tape has received new customers; some don't even realize they're using it. Continue Reading
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News
06 Jan 2021
Tape storage protects research on Antarctic science ship
British Antarctic Survey outfitted the RRS Sir David Attenborough with Quantum QXS hybrid disk and Scalar i3 tape libraries to store and protect research data mid-voyage. Continue Reading
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News
09 Dec 2020
New XenData appliances provide bridge between disk and tape
XenData seeks to simplify managing LTO tape libraries but finds itself competing with disk, public clouds, other tape vendors and 'poor storage management.' Continue Reading
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News
16 Nov 2020
Flexential Archive Storage heats up with Wasabi
Cloud storage has trended up since the coronavirus pandemic hit. Flexential and Wasabi have teamed up on an archival storage platform that takes advantage of the cloud. Continue Reading
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Answer
11 Nov 2020
How can I best implement an active archive environment?
Examine the major elements of an active archiving environment, including the kinds of data that you can use in one and resources to help with platform execution. Continue Reading
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News
10 Nov 2020
Caringo Swarm 12 adds remote sync, SSO and updated UI
Caringo's updates to Swarm are designed to make the object storage easier to access and manage while working with distributed data at scale as remote work becomes prevalent. Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2020
In new LTO roadmap, LTO-9 features 45 TB capacity
Long-term archiving and offline data protection are two key uses for LTO-9, the latest generation of tapes from the LTO Program. The roadmap extends to LTO-12. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Sep 2020
Archive as a service: What you need to know
Archive-as-a-service offerings could help simplify what can be a complicated process. Make sure you do the proper research and vetting before undertaking the cloud-based platform. Continue Reading
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News
03 Sep 2020
Tape data storage industry tackles challenges, archival uses
The tape data storage market has confronted a major legal issue and a pandemic. Buoyed by strong archival use and offline protection, capacity shipments rose last year. Continue Reading
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News
06 Aug 2020
IMT Software cracks open SoDA data management
Integrated Media Technologies, an MSP targeting media and entertainment, expanded into software development with SoDA, an unstructured data management tool. Continue Reading
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News
03 Aug 2020
Fujifilm offers subscriptions for tape-based object storage
AWS established Glacier as a cloud alternative to on-premises tape storage. Now Fujifilm positions its Object Archive to tape as an on-premises alternative to Glacier. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jul 2020
Azure partner Aparavi takes on unstructured data management
Aparavi retired its Active Archive and File Protect & Insight products and brought their features to its new cloud-based data management and automation platform launched on Azure. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Jul 2020
How to choose a long-term data archiving services vendor
When evaluating archiving services, you must determine what you need to archive, requirements around that data and how to make the most cost-effective selection. Continue Reading
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News
01 Jul 2020
Quantum tape, NAS recovery stalled by COVID-19, sports break
Quantum says, 'Let the games begin' after sports and entertainment pauses interrupt sales of tape and scale-out NAS storage; vendor also faces possible PPP problems. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Jun 2020
Why tape-based backup is making a comeback
New technologies make venerable tape storage tech a smart choice for off-site backups and data archiving. Explore pros and cons, as well as how the pandemic affects tape use. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jun 2020
StrongBox Data adds native LTFS to its StrongLink platform
With native support for any tape library, StrongLink is capable of cross-platform data management whether the underlying storage is flash, disk, tape or cloud. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 May 2020
Best practices for backup audit preparation
What are must-have items to satisfy an audit of your backup platform? Why is auditing important? Discover how the audit process can help your organization improve. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 May 2020
Data backup plan template: A free download and guide
Download our free backup planning template to help you get started or improve your current plan. It's important to have critical information laid out in a document. Continue Reading
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Opinion
07 May 2020
Add tape backup in 2020 to boost a data protection strategy
Tape has never really gone away. But it can be useful beyond long-term archiving. Learn why IT professionals may want to consider reintroducing tape backup into their data centers. Continue Reading
- 07 May 2020
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News
30 Apr 2020
Igneous Systems enhances DataDiscover with global search
Igneous Systems' upgrades to DataDiscover and DataFlow address unstructured data growth by allowing customers with massive data sets to see everything they have and move it anywhere. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Mar 2020
How to keep physical backup media storage safe
Data is your organization's most important digital asset. Here are some tips on how to ensure physical data backups are stored at a safe and secure location. Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2020
New FalconStor StorSafe uses containers to archive backups
FalconStor's new StorSafe product combines container, erasure coding and data reduction to archive backups and make them portable across cloud sites. Continue Reading
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News
17 Mar 2020
Igneous brings SaaS data management to Dell EMC appliances
Igneous rocks on-premises backup, data management with ability to use Dell NAS appliances as targets for its SaaS platform that was designed for public clouds. Continue Reading
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News
05 Mar 2020
Veritas Enterprise Vault adds cloud-based supervision
Veritas added Advanced Supervision to its cloud archiving platform and said even customers outside of heavily regulated industries demand communications monitoring tools. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Feb 2020
Achieve multi-cloud data protection with archiving, backup and DR
How can multi-cloud users effectively use DR, backup and archiving together? Although multiple clouds complicate infrastructure, they also offer benefits for data protection. Continue Reading
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News
31 Jan 2020
Assureon archive is fast, but shouldn't replace backup
Nexsan Assureon 8.3 ramped up retrieval speeds, making it suitable for backup and DR. However, relying on the archive appliance for multiple use cases carries its own risks. Continue Reading
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Answer
29 Jan 2020
Why is a data archive plan important?
A data archiving plan might not be simply important for your organization -- it could be necessary, given legal and compliance requirements. Make sure you're ahead of the game. Continue Reading
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News
27 Jan 2020
Quantum tape gets repackaged into turnkey ransomware defense
Quantum says tape's main perk is as an air-gapped defense against ransomware. Its new Ransomware Protection Packs combine tape libraries with a built-in, off-network vault. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2020
Nakivo update supports tape, physical servers
Nakivo now supports tape and physical servers, a departure from its initial focus on cloud and VMs. Demand and expert opinion suggest there will always be need for physical backup. Continue Reading
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News
16 Dec 2019
XenData launches plug-and-play archive appliance
XenData's X1 appliance makes archiving by tape, Sony Optical Disc Archive and cloud object storage simpler and more network-friendly. It connects archives for multiple users. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Nov 2019
In your data archive strategy, how long is long enough?
Hoarding large amounts of data increases costs and management time. Here's how to painlessly separate the wheat from the chaff for your data archive strategy. Continue Reading
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Podcast
31 Oct 2019
Talking magnetic tape for storage with Quantum
Mark Pastor of Quantum speaks in this Q&A about tape's advancements and uses, as well as challenges in the market, including 'old perceptions' of tape. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Oct 2019
Archive vs. backup and why you need to know the differences
Archiving and data backup are both key pieces of data protection. They can complement each other, but both provide distinct and important capabilities. Continue Reading
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Guide
30 Sep 2019
Data protection technologies changing the market
The world of data protection is constantly evolving, and organizations need to be prepared with an arsenal of tools to face modern threats and hurdles. Continue Reading
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Answer
25 Sep 2019
What are best practices for archiving emails?
Archiving email is crucial to the business continuity and disaster recovery process. For example, consider how cybersecurity and cloud storage can integrate with the archiving. Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2019
Igneous Systems DataProtect gets software-only release
Igneous DataProtect's software-only version is aimed at cloud-first customers. It has the same capabilities as the NAS appliance version, including integration with DataDiscover. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Aug 2019
How tape backup systems improve data protection
Have you analyzed your data protection lately? Tape backup could be a savior if you get hit with a ransomware attack or other malware. Learn more about five tape-related terms. Continue Reading
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News
12 Aug 2019
TACC updates archive with Quantum tape technology
TACC added a Quantum tape library to its Ranch long-term storage system for better space allocation control and to replace an aging Oracle HSM-based archive system. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jul 2019
Quantum CEO looks to modernize data storage platforms
Quantum continues support of legacy tape, NAS and disk, but its products are now 'software-defined and hyper-converged.' CEO Jamie Lerner says its SEC probe is winding down. Continue Reading
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News
13 Jun 2019
Solix archiving takes files, databases, email to the cloud
The new Solix archiving product is the result of close development work with Microsoft. SolixCloud Enterprise Archiving features a focus on unstructured data. Continue Reading
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News
04 Jun 2019
Penn State Health seeks centralized backup, picks Commvault
As Penn State Health's data grew across its vast network of hospitals and practices, it turned to Commvault for centralized backup and a way to archive petabytes of research data. Continue Reading
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News
04 Apr 2019
Compute-heavy Unitrends appliances allow on-the-box recovery
Unitrends offers up extra compute and memory in low-capacity backup appliances as an alternative to using the public cloud for small companies and remote offices. Continue Reading
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News
29 Mar 2019
Survey: Data protection challenges, costs keep growing
Despite a great deal of focus on security these days, data protection tools have not kept up with emerging technologies, according to a new Dell EMC data protection survey. Continue Reading
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News
20 Mar 2019
Aparavi update adds better data classification, more clouds
Aparavi updates Active Archive with customizable data classification and tagging capabilities for easier future retrieval and improved metadata search. Continue Reading
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News
18 Mar 2019
How is tape backup doing in 2019?
Industry experts say tape isn't going away and the technology is actually improving. The problem, they say, is vendors aren't talking enough about this 'old-school' backup method. Continue Reading
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Feature
04 Mar 2019
Jon Toigo, data storage analyst and author remembered
Editors and colleagues pay tribute to the respected data storage analyst, pundit and author, who was a longtime Storage magazine columnist and TechTarget contributor and speaker. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jan 2019
Vanderbilt books Spectra tape library for research data
Research data can accumulate fast. A Spectra Logic tape library stores petabytes for Vanderbilt's research center, and the university plans to use far more backup storage space. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jan 2019
XenData introduces magnetic tape backup migration service
XenData now offers a service to move magnetic tape backup data to either a newer tape format or to cloud, allowing customers with old tapes to get rid of legacy systems. Continue Reading
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News
14 Jan 2019
Backup hardware devices: 2018 Products of the Year finalists
Some finalists in the 2018 Products of the Year backup hardware category aim to entice data-rich SMBs, or carve their niche by branching out beyond backup and recovery. Continue Reading
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News
26 Sep 2018
OwnBackup Salesforce tools include archive and blockchain
OwnBackup's fall release includes a new data archiving product, a blockchain-powered compliance component and improved capabilities for its Salesforce protection app. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Sep 2018
Consider storage backup devices for your data protection strategy
A secondary storage device could be an important element of your data protection platform. Analyze accessibility, speed, scalability and cost before jumping in. Continue Reading
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News
22 Aug 2018
Igneous Systems rocks unstructured data protection for NAS
Igneous expands its integrations with network-attached storage, aiming to offer easier, unified backup of unstructured data. Volume and complexity of that data can be challenging. Continue Reading
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News
14 Aug 2018
New Quantum backup appliance brings Veeam to tape
Integrated disk backup appliances are now common, but Quantum and Veeam have taken the converged architecture to tape backups to eliminate the need for a dedicated external server. Continue Reading
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News
13 Aug 2018
Rubrik backup helps Castilleja School move to cloud
California school sees Rubrik converged data protection and AWS S3 as key building blocks for a multi-cloud strategy, with archiving as the first step. Continue Reading
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Answer
24 Jul 2018
How do I know if cloud-based archiving is the right choice?
If you don't need to access old data much, cloud archiving could work out well. That's just one consideration, though, for deciding which archival platform to employ. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jul 2018
Commvault architecture overhaul reduces product count
By consolidating more than 20 offerings into four repackaged product sets, Commvault moves to simplify the purchasing process and eliminate its architecture's 'features sprawl.' Continue Reading
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News
12 Jul 2018
Tape storage capacity plays important role as data increases
There's a long runway for tape, with hundreds of terabytes of storage capacity soon available on a single cartridge. Flash, disk, the cloud and tape will all be key for storage. Continue Reading
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News
05 Jul 2018
New Quantum CEO Lerner sees a future in rich media
The former Cisco exec hopes to use Quantum's high-ingest technology and tape storage to serve a growing need in the surveillance, medical and entertainment markets. Continue Reading
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News
20 Jun 2018
Archive360 mixes and matches cloud data archiving elements
Archive360's Archive2Azure previously supported file and message archiving. Now, users can archive Salesforce and healthcare data, among other elements, to the Azure cloud. Continue Reading
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Feature
24 May 2018
The evolution of backing up to tape and where it stands
Tape backup continues to have a cost advantage over disk, and there are still some use cases where the medium makes sense and will do so for the foreseeable future. Continue Reading
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News
25 Apr 2018
Cohesity CloudSpin serves up test/dev data
Converged secondary storage vendor Cohesity brings copy data management into the cloud for DevOps with CloudSpin and public cloud snapshot API integration. Continue Reading
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Podcast
30 Mar 2018
Igneous Systems CEO: Data protection market transforming
Igneous is seeking to take hold of a market that's 'up for grabs.' The vendor's Hybrid Storage Cloud provides backup and archive of unstructured data, as well as data management. Continue Reading
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News
07 Mar 2018
Spectra tape library line grows with Stack, T950v
Spectra Logic tape library choices now include the scalable Stack and a cheaper version of its previous T950 line. Tape can be a key storage element, as data sets continue to grow. Continue Reading
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News
15 Jan 2018
Backup hardware devices: 2017 Products of the Year finalists
Backup and disaster recovery hardware products that made the initial cut extend into the cloud and have more support for software-defined storage, data analytics and even tape. Continue Reading
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Tip
27 Jul 2017
How a backup data retention policy combats growing storage needs
While a thorough backup system can protect your data, it can also lead to a rapid increase in the amount of data you have stored. A policy-based storage system may be able to help. Continue Reading
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Answer
28 Nov 2016
How can I ensure that my tape backup technology is secure?
With the portability of tapes and the ability to store terabytes of data on a single cartridge, appropriate security of tape backup storage is imperative. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Jun 2016
Tape archiving tips for a better storage strategy
Studies show that tape archives are a comparatively cheaper method of long-term data retention. Explore how to use active archive and other storage technologies with a tape system. Continue Reading
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Feature
06 Jun 2016
Tape archive remains the recording medium of choice
Tape archiving offers low-cost, long-term data protection in a variety of industries, keeping it atop the list of data center backup technologies. Continue Reading
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Answer
27 Feb 2015
Tape vs. disk: Which offers the greatest energy efficiency?
Jon Toigo looks at the factors that determine whether disk or tape is more energy-efficient. Continue Reading
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News
16 Sep 2014
LTO tape vendors announce LTO-9 and LTO-10
LTO tape vendors extend the LTO roadmap to include generations 9 and 10 with increasing capacity and transfer rates. Continue Reading
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Answer
29 Apr 2014
How to estimate the lifespan of backup tape media
Brien Posey offers advice on how to estimate the useful lifespan of backup tape media based on how it is used, in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
