> Please note that this volume is also largely in the realm of tape archive. Current tape libraries are fast, and LTO-5 are 1.5TB uncompressed. It can definitely be cheaper in the long run.
A backblaze setup with today's disk costs is <$40K for hardware (for random access!). Even if you don't need quick or random access - how can a tape library compete with that, short or long run, when the ceapest LTOs are at $40/TB (just like disks), tape devices are expensive, robots are expensive, etc?
Also, disk prices keep falling, whereas tapes (for the same technology) tend to remain the same price, so if you're considering future growth, disks win again.
And furthermore, I have two 15GB hard disks from '99 that I took out of a computer in '2002, and I can still read (tested last month when I was cleaning up; I know the oil might congeal, but it hasn't in this case). I connected them to an external USB-to-IDE converter I found for $10, and they are still available.
I also have a tape backup of some kind from the same era - and no way on earth to read it, because I don't have the tape device, and they're no longer being manufactured.
A backblaze setup with today's disk costs is <$40K for hardware (for random access!). Even if you don't need quick or random access - how can a tape library compete with that, short or long run, when the ceapest LTOs are at $40/TB (just like disks), tape devices are expensive, robots are expensive, etc?
Also, disk prices keep falling, whereas tapes (for the same technology) tend to remain the same price, so if you're considering future growth, disks win again.
And furthermore, I have two 15GB hard disks from '99 that I took out of a computer in '2002, and I can still read (tested last month when I was cleaning up; I know the oil might congeal, but it hasn't in this case). I connected them to an external USB-to-IDE converter I found for $10, and they are still available.
I also have a tape backup of some kind from the same era - and no way on earth to read it, because I don't have the tape device, and they're no longer being manufactured.