- Cost
Tape drives cost anything from $700 to thousands.
Most tapes cost at least $50-$100 each. You need a minimum of 4 tapes for a Monday
through Thursday rotation plus an additional 5 tapes for weekly offsite, and 13 for
monthly rotations...
totaling at least $2200 in replaceable media alone!
Tape drives, and their tapes quickly become outdated and need upgrading for
future capacity and failure.
Online Backups No hardware costs, just a single monthly charge. Fully expandable
for future needs, so no need for any further hardware upgrades.
- Reliability
Tape Drives and their tapes are prone to failure due to environmental
factors and human handling. Heat, sunlight, humidity, liquids, and dust are present
in most average offices, and can cause instant damage, or degrade overtime.
Dropped, damaged and misplaced tapes add to a low reliability service.
Online Backups have all your data stored on a high end, multi-redundant
system, which is in turn backed up again on to another redundant system. This means
you have access to specialized high-end equipment whose cost just couldn't be
justified in the average small office / home office.
- Media Safety
Tape Backups Are next to useless unless they're taken offsite every night.
Most tape backups are left sitting next to the computer that made them, meaning
your backup is now no longer protecting you from natural disasters (fire,
flood, earthquakes), not to mention theft, disgruntled employees and sabotage.
Online Backups by their nature are always stored safely offsite, protecting
your data from natural and human disasters, as well as mechanical failure.
- Information Security
If you do take your tapes offsite, are they stored safely? Can they be
lost or stolen? Are they left in your car, or at
home? Is your information encrypted, or can anyone who finds your tape
access it?
With an online backup, all your files are encrypted before they leave your
computer, so even if someone were to be
able to intercept it on its way to our secure storage site, they wouldn't be able
to use it.
- Ease of Use
For a tape backup system to work, the user needs to manually put tape media in the
drive, swap it when it is full, and then at the end of the day, take it offsite. This
requires time and effort, but more importantly it needs to be done regularly. It is
easy to forgot, or put it off for another day.
An Online Backup System runs automatically at a set time, usually at night. It backs up
your files with no human intervention required, so couldn't be easier, and you don't
need to remember to run it.
- Capacity
Tape backups have a limited data capacity. When you exceed this, you will need
to buy extra tapes, or upgrade your entire tape backup system, at a large cost.
Your Online Backup plan can be upgraded at anytime, to any extent, to meet
your future needs, with just a small increase in monthly charges, and no large outlay
required.
- Remote Access
Your tapes cannot be accessed remotely. With an Online Backup System with NetRescue,
you can access your files from any internet capable computer in the world, assuming
you have your password available of course.
- Support
All support for a tape backup system must be provided by your computer contractors,
who can charge anything from $60 - $150 per hour. In most cases, NetRescue can fix
your Online Backup system with our free email support, or phone support with a low
one off fee per incident.
