Tape to Cloud
Thinking about cloud storage to complement your LTO infrastructure?
You’ve come to the right place.
Take a Fresh Look at Your Backup and Archive Strategy
Linear Tape-Open (LTO)-based storage has long been the economic favorite for data backup and archiving. Much of the world’s backup data resides in portable, remotely stored tape drives, at the ready in case disaster should strike.
So it’s highly likely that you have existing investments to protect your data in LTO infrastructure, software, and processes. If it isn’t broken, why “fix” it?
As digital transformation initiatives proliferate, data volumes soar, and retrieval needs grow more dynamic, you might find yourself looking to add another layer of data protection to your backup and archiving infrastructure. Or you might be thinking that, since cloud seems to be the wave of the future, it wouldn’t hurt to test the waters to see how well the cloud could one day handle your storage requirements.
In fact, because the latest iteration of LTO technology is limited in its compatibility with previous LTO generations, now might be the perfect time to start building a migratory bridge from your LTO environment to the latest iteration of cloud storage, Cloud Storage 2.0. This technology generation has introduced unprecedented economics and simplicity to using the cloud as a storage medium, with the added benefit that all cloud-stored data is immediately retrievable.
Testing Cloud Storage 2.0 for a subset of your data storage needs will help you start paving the way to a more affordable future in which data is readily accessible, and one in which it’s far easier to meet the recovery point and recovery time objectives (RPOs and RTOs) of your disaster recovery plans.
Given existing investments in tape for disaster recovery and archiving applications, does it make sense to extend LTO to the cloud? Cost-benefit analyses of cloud storage have long come out in favor of LTO, but the economic pendulum has started to swing with the advent of Cloud Storage 2.0 economics.
That means it might be worth testing the cloud as a remote backup destination for extra data protection or simply for experimentation purposes. Some points to consider:
| Pro | Con |
|---|---|
| Capital investments have already been made and are depreciating. | There’s a new generation of LTO technology every couple of years, generating a new IT learning curve. |
| Backup software has been tested and is in place. | The latest LTO version, LTO-8, is only backward-compatible by one generation. Much of your tape investment could soon become obsolete. |
| Tape costs are well understood. | While tape as a medium has a shelf life of 20 or 30 years, tape drives don’t last nearly as long. And they require ongoing physical maintenance. |
| Tape backup processes are established and well-oiled. | Tape’s cost advantages are running into competition from Cloud Storage 2.0 economics. Enterprise Strategy Group estimates that the 10-year cost of LTO storage is about $.02 per GB per month, while Wasabi hot storage is just $.0059 per GB per month. |
| Over time, the risk to data that hasn’t been refreshed or replicated from early LTO tapes increases. |
Why Cloud Storage?
Not all clouds are created equal
Many cloud storage providers have complex, tiered offerings that make simply deciding what tier to use for any given need a project unto itself. These are Cloud Storage 1.0 providers.
Because the differences between tiers can be subtle, and your requirements may change over time, it can be difficult to know whether your data is in the “right” tier at any point in time, and how that may impact your budget.
Using less expensive, slow tiers forces you to give up your ability to gain instant access to your data. And when you do want to download your data, which you’re already paying to store, most cloud storage providers charge an egress fee just for the privilege.
Wasabi doesn’t do any of these things. All storage is “hot”—or instantly available. We offer a single pricing plan, for which we charge a flat $.0059 per gigabyte per month, with no egress fees. So you can get your data whenever you want it and you can get it fast—with no financial penalties to worry about.
Advantages of Cloud Storage 2.0
- No CAPEX
- Low OPEX: no recurring power, cooling, rack space, hardware/software, maintenance, or excessive personnel costs
- Pay-as-you-go scalability and flexibility
- Protection from obsolescence
- Increased security and compliance
Achieving Your Business and Technical Goals with Cloud Storage 2.0 from Wasabi
Business Outcomes:
- Ensure continuous data availability and business uptime
- Lower total cost of ownership
- Reduce physical data center footprint
- Free up budget for strategic initiatives
Technical Outcomes:
- Speed retrieval time of archive or backup data
- Retain existing workflows while reducing hardware and physical storage infrastructure
- Find a nondisruptive entry point into cloud storage
- Create interoperability “bridge” between on-premises LTO and cloud object storage
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What if you could store ALL of your data in the cloud affordably?
NOW YOU CAN. Wasabi is here to guide you through your migration to the enterprise cloud and to work with you to determine which cloud storage strategy is right for your organization.