OBM Vs TAPE – The advantage of Online Backup versus Tape Drives.

Change is hard to deal with, especially when it comes to something as important as your system, should something go wrong it would put even the bigger companies in a very difficult position. 

Could you afford to loose a week of work? How would you manage if you were hit by a flood, or if your buildings went up in flames? Would your information survive? Could you keep trading the next day?

Everyone in business knows that it is wise to backup your computer system regularly. Some people do and some wisely store their backup in premises away from their office for added security. Others simply never get round to backing up their system. Making the decision to back you systems up is the fist step, but deciding how to do so is the next, you could choose traditional tapes, or your could look to the future and use Online Backup Management (OBM)

Without 100% reliable backup, your business is vulnerable in the event of fire, flood, virus, theft, power cut etc. It is very easy to forget to backup your data on a daily basis, you may not even get back to the office at the end of a busy day of seeing customers and the risks to your business remain. The most up to the minute, affordable and reliable way to backup your data is with online backup from Rombus Computers.

But lets break it down and see which is really better:  Tape Vs OBM

Level of Capital Expenditure:
Tape: High . Especially for larger data volumes, or complex backup requirements.
OBM: Low . An ongoing monthly operating fee, depending on how much data you want to backup.
Winner: OBM

Total cost of ownership:
Tape: Moderate . Together with hardware maintenance costs, there are often unseen human resource costs.
OBM: Low . Per GB monthly fees reduce as storage volumes grow.
Winner: OBM

Maintenance/Management:
Tape: High . Engineers are required to design, manage and maintain tape backup processes as well as recover data.
OBM: Low . Management of online data backup processes can be pushed to the user level.
Winner: OBM

Scalability (ability to handle growing amounts of data):
Tape: Low . Limited flexibility when storage volumes increase or backup strategies change.
OBM: High . The growth of the infrastructure can be managed enabling your data volumes to grow without concern.
Winner: OBM

Data Security:
Tape: Low . Tapes can be lost, stolen or damaged in even the most well managed tape backup procedures.
OBM: High . Copies of your data is stored in an encrypted format in a highly secure data centre.
Winner: OBM

Reliability:
Tape: Low . Tapes often suffer from reliability issues.
OBM: High . Data is stored in a highly secure data centre constantly monitored and engineers are on call. You can access your data via any computer with internet access.
Winner: OBM

Protection:
Tape: Low . Data is generally stored in an unencrypted format.
OBM: High . Data is encrypted when in transit and in storage, eradicating the risk of it being compromised.
Winner: OBM

Ease of Data Restoration:
Tape: Low . Time intensive processes are required in order for engineers to restore large data sets.
OBM: High . Individual or multiple files can be restored quickly and easily by the user.
Winner: OBM

Future Proof:
Tape: No . As storage technology evolves your tape backup investment can quickly become obsolete.
OBM: Yes. We continually invest in performance hardware to meet customers' storage requirements.
Winner: OBM

Required length of Backup window:
Tape: Long . Large data volumes and longer working hours are continually shortening tape backup windows.
OBM: Short . Backups take place instantly whilst users are working and incremental backups shorten the backup cycle.
Winner: OBM

Looks like OBM comes out on top. Tapes do work but the level of risk and cost is so high that it is destined to become a dinosaur of the technical age.

For more information on OBM go to: http://www.rombus.com/products/rombus-obm