I've just been involved in a network project that's considered backups around the 300GB mark. In the end we decided it was too expensive to setup and run, and led us to review exactly what data we need to back up. This is the smartest thing to do in any backup situation, given the ratio of backup media cost (per GB) versus that of disks (per GB).

No company produces a system where you can get 1TB onto a single tape, though several companies market libraries which allow you to get 1TB (or more) onto multiple tapes. These are becoming more mainstream, and more affordable, from what I have seen, with the introduction of LTO tapes (100GB native; and Ultrium2 (200GB native (I *think*) is just around the corner) and SDLT (160GB native, in it's largest capacity).

Quantum, in particularly produces some nice looking library solutions in the 1-40TB range. The ATL superloader with the 16 Tape SDLT320 option looks nice, with a 2.56TB native capacity. Things scale from there dramatically.

The higher end of the market is your storageteks and the like, which'll charge you a bunch for the system, probably starting around the $100,000 mark, but perhaps provide a more integrated solution.

Expect to pay ALOT of money (at minimum, $30,000) for a library, and then more for the media. Media is typically $1-200 per tape, so if you need to keep it for three years, you'll be paying loads for that too.

Finally, don't underestimate the importance of your backup / storage management software. A good piece of software is a must. This will cost a pretty penny too (A bog standard version of CA ArcServe 9 is ~$3000, without the extra options needed for a tape library of the size you talk about).

My suggestion is like all the others. Hire a specialist.

Cheers,

Matt


At 23:05 13/01/2003, you wrote:
Hello Sluggers,

I will like an advise on a backup system, I need to back up about 300GB now
and in about 11 months time, it will add up to 4/5 TerraB. This data needs
to be kept safe for about 3 years. And there after it will be the same every
year or potentially  increase by about 30% or more.

I thought of tapes, is there ( Market) tapes that can hold at least 1
TerraB? What is the highest available?
Also thought of hot swappable SCSI drives? is there any IDE drives that are
also hot swappable? This last one seems to be cheaper than SCSI.

Can you guys please suggest me a couple options that are upgradable? and
maybe a bold figure as to how much will I be looking at?

Thanking you in advice.

John

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