Streamers

At one forum, a dispute arose regarding the popularity of this data backup technology.
It seems to me quite archaic and popular only in certain types of data centers, with almost unused houses and organizations that are not directly involved in data storage. Opponent believes that backup to tape is the norm for most data centers.

Judge, please.
')
I am also interested in the fact of using streamers in data centers of Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Yandex, etc.
And just how it is arranged data backup.