Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I spent an insane amount of money so I have something to replicate my data, but I know full well that spinning disks are ultimately a dead end. I need tape for long-term reliability.
I'm looking at $25 for 800GB/tape of storage and probably $2500 - $3200 for a drive that can support 8 or 16 tapes, and right now I think I need to store about 18TB. Even if I'm using one generation old technology, I don't add data so fast that multiples of 800GB would be inadequate. I'm assuming zero compression, because almost all of what I store is precompressed.
Yes, it takes a while to justify the tape changer + tape + software, but right now I have four systems with 17 total drives apiece that are running full-time, plus whatever bizarro combination of disk controllers it took to get all those drives running in the first place, plus cold spares. I really should have just gone with two file servers + tape library in the first place.
I'm looking at $25 for 800GB/tape of storage and probably $2500 - $3200 for a drive that can support 8 or 16 tapes, and right now I think I need to store about 18TB. Even if I'm using one generation old technology, I don't add data so fast that multiples of 800GB would be inadequate. I'm assuming zero compression, because almost all of what I store is precompressed.
Yes, it takes a while to justify the tape changer + tape + software, but right now I have four systems with 17 total drives apiece that are running full-time, plus whatever bizarro combination of disk controllers it took to get all those drives running in the first place, plus cold spares. I really should have just gone with two file servers + tape library in the first place.