| Level of Capital Expenditure |
High. Especially for large data volumes or complex backup requirements. |
None. It's free to signup.
Please note: There will be an ongoing monthly operating fee, depending on how much data you want to backup. |
| Total cost of ownership |
Moderate. Together with hardware maintenance costs, there are often unseen human resource costs. |
Low. Per GB monthly fees reduce as storage volumes grow. |
| Maintenance/Management |
High. Engineers are required to design, manage and maintain tape backup processes as well as recover data. |
Low. Management of online data backup processes can be pushed to the user level. |
| Scalability |
Low. Limited flexibility when storage volumes increase or backup strategies change. |
High. We manage the growth of the infrastructure enabling your data volumes to grow without your concern. |
| Data Security |
Low. Tapes can be lost, stolen or damaged in even the most well managed tape backup procedures. |
High. Two copies of your data are stored in an encrypted format in multiple highly secure data centres. |
| Automation |
Moderate. Even automated tape backup installations require manual intervention to remotely store copies. |
High. The entire online data backup process is managed by the client software and storage network. |
| Reliability |
Low. Tapes are often weakly built and can suffer from reliability issues. |
High. Data is stored on multiple disks at multiple sites. All are constantly monitored and engineers are on call 24/7. |
| Protection |
Low. Data is generally stored in an unencrypted format making theft a significant risk. |
High. Data is encrypted when in transit and in storage, eliminating the risk of it being compromised. |
| Ease of Data Restoration |
Low. Time intensive processes are required in order for engineers to restore large data sets. |
High. Individual or multiple files can be restored quickly and easily by the user. |
| Future Proof |
No. As storage technology evolves your tape backup investment can quickly become obsolete. |
Yes. We continually invest in performance hardware to meet customers' storage requirements. |
| Required length of Backup window |
Long. Large data volumes and longer working hours are continually shortening tape backup windows. |
Short. Backups can take place whilst users are working and incremental backups shorten the backup cycle. |