Why is tape drive so expensive?

There are constant innovations in tape capacity, much like there are in hard drive capacity, the largest capacity is always premium price. If you want a cheaper alternative look for an older tape library but the media costs will eat up the savings fairly quickly.

How much does a tape library cost?

Typical entry-level solutions cost around $10,000 USD, while high-end solutions can start at as much as $200,000 USD and cost well in excess of $1 million for a fully expanded and configured library. For large data-storage, they are a cost-effective solution, with cost per gigabyte as low as 2 cents USD.

How much do LTO tapes cost?

Tapes — We use LTO-8 tapes that will decrease in cost about 20\% per year down to $60. Non-compressed, these tapes store 12 TB each and take about 9.5 hours to fully load.

What is a drawback of tape backups?

Some of the main disadvantages of tape backups include: Businesses need to regularly purchase media and pay ongoing costs for system management. Limit Scalability – While tapes take up less physical room than hard drives, scalability is limited by the capacity of the format.

What are tape backups?

Tape backup is the process of backing up critical data to a tape cartridge. A tape drive is one of the oldest data storage devices which allows for reading and writing data on a magnetic tape. A tape drive allows for sequential access storage, while a hard disk drive provides direct access storage.

How long does LTO tape last?

about 30 years
Tape manufacturers usually quote the lifespan of their LTO tapes at about 30 years. However, LTO tapes are extremely sensitive to storage conditions, so this 30-year life expectancy assumes you are using ideal storage conditions – a constant temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 40\% relative humidity.

How much does a magnetic tape cost?

Today magnetic tape technology offers the lowest purchase price of raw storage capacity at $0.02 per GB. HDDs prices are as low as $0.033 per GB.