How do companies cope with the growing avalanche of data? Is the tape really dead?
Joe Fagan, Senior Director, Cloud Initiatives, EMEA, Seagate Technology
1. Is there a place for tape drives in the era of cloud storage, virtualization and solid-state memory?
One of the reasons why many companies and organizations continue to use tape drives for backup, disaster recovery, and long-term data storage is that this technology provides additional security guarantees. However, this approach requires increased costs for managing, transporting and storing tape media. In addition, the tape can be a problem during long-term storage of data, because many organizations must have access to the archives for 15 or even 30 years.
This is partly why there are less and less reasons for using tape media. New technologies that offer increased flexibility, reliability, speed of access and lower cost of ownership, replace the tape as backup storage. Most restorations are made from current backups, so it is more convenient and cheaper to use specialized devices or stand-alone network drives for their storage (D2D backup). Then, if necessary, the backup can be moved to another device or to the “cloud” storage.
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The tape can not compete with the disk and as a backup media for disaster recovery. Network storage is much more attractive.
The use of tape as a “cold” storage also causes problems, since the access time it provides, especially for random read and write operations, is completely unacceptable in modern conditions. Increased disk storage capacities and technologies such as Shingled Magnetic Recording or Seagate's Kinetic Storage platform allow storage designers, cloud service providers, and companies to build much more productive and cost-effective cold storage.
If you need a very long storage of large amounts of information, for example for fifty or a hundred years, optical discs become the most accessible and reliable carrier, but switching to them is limited by a high price.
The tape remains the best solution for an average storage time of very large volumes (up to 15 years with the recommended 12–30 years). In such cases, the data is recorded once and, most likely, will never be claimed for reading, and the access time, calculated in hours and days, can be considered acceptable. Of course, if it is possible to store tapes in specialized darkened rooms with temperature and humidity control without the cost of supporting the rewinding equipment, then for some specific tasks their advantages will outweigh the numerous advantages of alternative carriers. Nonetheless, companies are increasingly switching to other technologies in order to meet the ever-changing storage requirements and optimize costs.
2. Is there a future tape in the field of backup and recovery?
Today, tape is one of the main backup storage media. However, redundancy requirements are constantly growing, and this technology is no longer the best solution. As the volume of data generated by companies increases, the size of tape libraries becomes a problem, even despite the increase in recording density and their automation.
Since Seagate created its first hard drive in 1979, the industry has evolved roughly in accordance with Moore’s law: every two years hard drives have doubled in size and at the same time halved in price without increasing in size. However, increasing the recording density on a ferromagnet can no longer be a way to increase the capacity of devices. Fortunately, the inability to meet demand through traditional approaches will necessarily lead to the emergence of new technologies. Some we can already see.
Scientists and engineers have done tremendous work to extend the age of electronics as much as possible and create completely new methods for storing information: from breakthroughs in the production of efficient resistive random access memory (RRAM) to Seagate-developed thermomagnetic recording technology (HAMR) and stunningly complex DNA storage. Already implemented and upcoming innovations may allow humanity to close the emerging gap between the available and necessary data storage volumes.
In the meantime, companies and IT managers should take into account their storage needs in both long-term and short-term planning, because in order to get the most out of huge amounts of information, they must be accessible and easily manageable with low maintenance costs.
3. Tape drives continue to prevail despite charges of high cost, lack of flexibility and the fact that they are outdated. Why do they remain in demand and to what extent do you agree with these statements?
If you maintain the growth rate of big data in two years, storage requirements will exceed the available production capacity. This is a very important issue that requires attention from ordinary consumers, companies and government agencies. The modern world is largely based on our ability to store and provide on-demand critical information both online and offline, and the amount of data collected and used annually will grow exponentially over the next ten years.
New developments, such as HAMR, will play an important role in bridging the gap between needs and storage capacity. Probably, HAMR will allow to raise the limit of the density of magnetic recording, and hence the storage capacity, 100 times. This will allow you to create hard disks with a density of up to 50 Tbit per square inch, i.e., in a short time, all books written by mankind can fit on 20 hard disks with HAMR technology. Seagate has become the world's largest investor in the development of technology HAMR and plans to submit it in 2016.
4. Cloud storage can boast low or zero upfront investment, but when it comes to total cost of ownership, does tape remain the most cost-effective option?
No need to send recorded tapes to corporate or external libraries for storage provides significant savings and makes cloud storage more attractive in terms of total cost of ownership. The exponential growth in data volumes forces companies to think more and more about reducing storage costs, and the industry to work on innovations that increase storage efficiency and reduce overall costs in this area.
Improving efficiency is possible not only through the improvement of the drives themselves. Sometimes a change in storage architecture allows for significant progress. Seagate recently launched the Kinetic Open Storage platform, which offers a different mechanism for connecting object stores. This is a new class of Ethernet disks for storage at the level of key-value pairs in combination with development tools that include an open programming interface (API) and the corresponding libraries. This change in architecture provided a phenomenal increase in the efficiency of storage systems by eliminating outdated software and hardware and a traditional storage server.
In addition to the new level of efficiency provided by technologies such as the Kinetic Open Storage platform, large companies and organizations continue to use a variety of media - from DRAM, SSD, flash drives to several classes of hard drives, optical and tape drives to achieve optimal performance. to provide the necessary reliability and performance with maximum cost reduction.
1. Is there a place for tape drives in the era of cloud storage, virtualization and solid-state memory?
One of the reasons why many companies and organizations continue to use tape drives for backup, disaster recovery, and long-term data storage is that this technology provides additional security guarantees. However, this approach requires increased costs for managing, transporting and storing tape media. In addition, the tape can be a problem during long-term storage of data, because many organizations must have access to the archives for 15 or even 30 years.
This is partly why there are less and less reasons for using tape media. New technologies that offer increased flexibility, reliability, speed of access and lower cost of ownership, replace the tape as backup storage. Most restorations are made from current backups, so it is more convenient and cheaper to use specialized devices or stand-alone network drives for their storage (D2D backup). Then, if necessary, the backup can be moved to another device or to the “cloud” storage.
')
The tape can not compete with the disk and as a backup media for disaster recovery. Network storage is much more attractive.
The use of tape as a “cold” storage also causes problems, since the access time it provides, especially for random read and write operations, is completely unacceptable in modern conditions. Increased disk storage capacities and technologies such as Shingled Magnetic Recording or Seagate's Kinetic Storage platform allow storage designers, cloud service providers, and companies to build much more productive and cost-effective cold storage.
If you need a very long storage of large amounts of information, for example for fifty or a hundred years, optical discs become the most accessible and reliable carrier, but switching to them is limited by a high price.
The tape remains the best solution for an average storage time of very large volumes (up to 15 years with the recommended 12–30 years). In such cases, the data is recorded once and, most likely, will never be claimed for reading, and the access time, calculated in hours and days, can be considered acceptable. Of course, if it is possible to store tapes in specialized darkened rooms with temperature and humidity control without the cost of supporting the rewinding equipment, then for some specific tasks their advantages will outweigh the numerous advantages of alternative carriers. Nonetheless, companies are increasingly switching to other technologies in order to meet the ever-changing storage requirements and optimize costs.
2. Is there a future tape in the field of backup and recovery?
Today, tape is one of the main backup storage media. However, redundancy requirements are constantly growing, and this technology is no longer the best solution. As the volume of data generated by companies increases, the size of tape libraries becomes a problem, even despite the increase in recording density and their automation.
Since Seagate created its first hard drive in 1979, the industry has evolved roughly in accordance with Moore’s law: every two years hard drives have doubled in size and at the same time halved in price without increasing in size. However, increasing the recording density on a ferromagnet can no longer be a way to increase the capacity of devices. Fortunately, the inability to meet demand through traditional approaches will necessarily lead to the emergence of new technologies. Some we can already see.
Scientists and engineers have done tremendous work to extend the age of electronics as much as possible and create completely new methods for storing information: from breakthroughs in the production of efficient resistive random access memory (RRAM) to Seagate-developed thermomagnetic recording technology (HAMR) and stunningly complex DNA storage. Already implemented and upcoming innovations may allow humanity to close the emerging gap between the available and necessary data storage volumes.
In the meantime, companies and IT managers should take into account their storage needs in both long-term and short-term planning, because in order to get the most out of huge amounts of information, they must be accessible and easily manageable with low maintenance costs.
3. Tape drives continue to prevail despite charges of high cost, lack of flexibility and the fact that they are outdated. Why do they remain in demand and to what extent do you agree with these statements?
If you maintain the growth rate of big data in two years, storage requirements will exceed the available production capacity. This is a very important issue that requires attention from ordinary consumers, companies and government agencies. The modern world is largely based on our ability to store and provide on-demand critical information both online and offline, and the amount of data collected and used annually will grow exponentially over the next ten years.
New developments, such as HAMR, will play an important role in bridging the gap between needs and storage capacity. Probably, HAMR will allow to raise the limit of the density of magnetic recording, and hence the storage capacity, 100 times. This will allow you to create hard disks with a density of up to 50 Tbit per square inch, i.e., in a short time, all books written by mankind can fit on 20 hard disks with HAMR technology. Seagate has become the world's largest investor in the development of technology HAMR and plans to submit it in 2016.
4. Cloud storage can boast low or zero upfront investment, but when it comes to total cost of ownership, does tape remain the most cost-effective option?
No need to send recorded tapes to corporate or external libraries for storage provides significant savings and makes cloud storage more attractive in terms of total cost of ownership. The exponential growth in data volumes forces companies to think more and more about reducing storage costs, and the industry to work on innovations that increase storage efficiency and reduce overall costs in this area.
Improving efficiency is possible not only through the improvement of the drives themselves. Sometimes a change in storage architecture allows for significant progress. Seagate recently launched the Kinetic Open Storage platform, which offers a different mechanism for connecting object stores. This is a new class of Ethernet disks for storage at the level of key-value pairs in combination with development tools that include an open programming interface (API) and the corresponding libraries. This change in architecture provided a phenomenal increase in the efficiency of storage systems by eliminating outdated software and hardware and a traditional storage server.
In addition to the new level of efficiency provided by technologies such as the Kinetic Open Storage platform, large companies and organizations continue to use a variety of media - from DRAM, SSD, flash drives to several classes of hard drives, optical and tape drives to achieve optimal performance. to provide the necessary reliability and performance with maximum cost reduction.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/251563/
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