I need to backup several TBytes/week, ideally through a differential or incremental strategy. In addition, I need to archive hundreds of very large medical imaging files (500 GByte each). You may have seen the details of my project in the network subforum.
My question is: should I use a tape backup system? Or should I buy a bunch of HDDs and perform the backups using a hot-swappable drive bay?
The options and prices are as follows:
Tape: A Tandberg LTO-8autoloader can hold 24 tapes. Price: approx. $ 6'000
Each tape can hold 12 TBytes (raw), a pack of 20 tapes costs $ 3'600 ($180/tape). Hence we are at $15/Tbyte, plus the tape device, plus the inconvenience that it will be hard to send the tapes to collaborators since nobody is likely to have the reader.
HDDs: Currently a 14 Tbyte drive is approx. $600, hence $42/Tbyte. This is almost 3x as the tape, but HDDs are highly portable, and do not need any obscure software or additional hardware. I suspect (but I may be wrong) that they may also be faster than tape, at least for random access.
The breakeven point is at ca. 14 HDDs (14 TByte each, hence 196 TBytes) ($ 8400) vs 16 tapes holding 192 Tbytes ($ 8560 including the recorder). This is the amount of data that we produce in 1 year. Beyond that amount of data, the tapes become much cheaper than the HDDs.
My question to the community is: what should I go for? Tape or HDDs? Are there any issues that I am not considering? Thanks for any and all advice!
My question is: should I use a tape backup system? Or should I buy a bunch of HDDs and perform the backups using a hot-swappable drive bay?
The options and prices are as follows:
Tape: A Tandberg LTO-8autoloader can hold 24 tapes. Price: approx. $ 6'000
Each tape can hold 12 TBytes (raw), a pack of 20 tapes costs $ 3'600 ($180/tape). Hence we are at $15/Tbyte, plus the tape device, plus the inconvenience that it will be hard to send the tapes to collaborators since nobody is likely to have the reader.
HDDs: Currently a 14 Tbyte drive is approx. $600, hence $42/Tbyte. This is almost 3x as the tape, but HDDs are highly portable, and do not need any obscure software or additional hardware. I suspect (but I may be wrong) that they may also be faster than tape, at least for random access.
The breakeven point is at ca. 14 HDDs (14 TByte each, hence 196 TBytes) ($ 8400) vs 16 tapes holding 192 Tbytes ($ 8560 including the recorder). This is the amount of data that we produce in 1 year. Beyond that amount of data, the tapes become much cheaper than the HDDs.
My question to the community is: what should I go for? Tape or HDDs? Are there any issues that I am not considering? Thanks for any and all advice!