A look at different drive technologies

A look at different drive technologies

I would like to know what the differences and benefits are of the different backup tape drives? I have heard that DLT/SDLT is at its peek and will be coming to an end in the very near future. Can you advise on what's going to be the next best thing (or even if there are better drives than DLT)?

I work in a medium-sized networking environment that is getting bigger and bigger. We are using Exchange server 5.5 and are looking to start using Active Directory. At the moment we have two CPQ DLT 35/70 drives. What would be the best form of backup and why?


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I'm not sure if DLT is at the end of its life. Super DLT is coming along in both capacity and speed. LTO is outselling it two to one, though. There are a number of different drive technologies if you're looking to make a change. In the mid-range market, there is LTO, Super DLT, AIT-3, 9x40 and Magstar. You can see a directory of all of these drives along with their relative speeds and capacities at Storage Mountain.

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This was first published in December 2002