----- "compdoc" compdoc@hotrodpc.com wrote:
The tape is easily replaceable, without having to worry about bad connectors that can plague hot swap drive bay equipment.
I really worry about your staff if you have damaged hot swap anything. How many insertions are they rated for? According to its data sheet, a lower end Tyco/AMP SATA connector measures up against EIA-364-09C (i.e., "Mate and unmated [sic] connector assemblies for 500 cycles at a maximum rate of 200 cycles/hour.") Other relevant forces are on there, and you can read the rest if you're interested here: http://tinyurl.com/ybnacp7 Basically, if you break them, you're doing something wrong or you are buying equipment with counterfeit or excessively substandard parts. I wouldn't consider this to be on the scale of a plague.
At $45 per tape for 320G of storage, it competes with hard drives. In case of tape drive failure, the tapes still work with the new drive. And with scsi or sata based tape drives, speed is not a problem.
Plus the cost of the tape drive (~$700), plus time, increased risk (longer backup duration means more risk), deployment flexibility, etc etc etc.
Combined with disk based network storage, tapes have a place in IT.
Yes, archival storage.