Quantum DLTtape DLT 2000, Руководство пользователя

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DLTtape drives in the world – and can deliver the maximum perfor-
mance possible for every one of those drives. For users, that means
they do not need to go to the great expense of transferring all their
older tapes to new media just to make them readable. And it means
that users with a mix of DLTtape drives can buy a single type of car-
tridge to support all their stand-alone and library drives, reducing
acquisition, stocking, and administrative costs.
Labor Costs
Labor cost is usually the biggest part of the true cost of backup. It’s
also the factor that drives many organizations to make the move
from other backup technologies to a DLTtape system-based backup.
Labor costs can be difficult to control. An organization could have
an adequate backup system, using a 4mm DAT or 8mm solution.
This solution could work well for a long time, until the environ-
ment starts to change. New applications come on board. Some of
them are critical to the success of the organization, and need to be
updated on a frequent schedule. The new applications may also be
larger and demand more backup space. At the same time, the avail-
able window of time for backups is shrinking. Unfortunately, the
existing backup system has not kept pace. All of a sudden, it is not
possible to complete a whole incremental backup in one shift. It
takes more tapes to complete a backup. And, tape drive mecha-
nisms originally designed with low duty-cycle consumer applica-
tions in mind are seriously compromised when faced with hour
after hour of heavy-duty use.
In this situation, labor costs start going through the roof. Someone
has to change tapes more and more frequently, be on hand to finish
the backup that won’t fit on one tape, and more and more fre-
quently swap out a drive that has succumbed to the pressure. As
one DLTtape system customer described his experience with DAT
backup, he found himself “getting too many midnight calls” with
his DAT system, prompting the move to DLTtape technology.
QUANTUM DLTtape HANDBOOK 12.5