Amazon’s data storage services are back in the news this week. Glacier, the latest storage product from Amazon was recently released and is being marketed by Amazon as being a more affordable and superior data archiving and backup solution than tape backup in for most applications. We’ve heard this all before, from different brands, from different vendors, etc. It seems like every time we hear that a potential tape killer has hit the market, just as quickly, we hear chatter from the storage industry to not get too excited, read between the lines and take another look at Ultrium tape library storage.
We’ve looked over the Amazon Glacier details, listened to what some of the heavy hitters in the storage industry are saying and looks like there are situations where Glacier is a better solution than tape storage. But, if you look at the bottom line, tape is still a superior solution in terms of affordability, especially for enterprise applications. And when you look at the additional value Maximum Midrange provides on tape storage solutions, choosing tape as your data archive and backup solution is practically a no-brainer.
Here are some of the details behind Amazon Glacier:
- Pricing starts at a penny per gigabyte per month. For a terabyte’s worth of data you’re looking at almost $125 per year just to store your data (that doesn’t include extraction fees).
- Amazon guarantees data protection, redundancy & reliability, but your data is still on their servers. How comfortable are you entrusting someone else with your data?
- Glacier was designed for infrequently accessed data and slow retrieval times are a given. If quick data retrieval is essential, tape is, again, a viable option.
- Amazon will be charging fees for early deletion and/or data retrieval. If you are frequently pulling significant amounts of data out of storage, charges could add up in a hurry and Glacier is probably not your best option.
If you are considering offsite storage for your enterprise application, do a cost analysis and look at the costs associated with annual cloud storage services compared with system and hardware options you would own that are currently available at Maximum Midrange. For example, the HP AH562A LTO-3 920 SAS Tape Drive is currently in stock and priced at $1,400. Current retail prices on this LTO-3 tape drive are about $5,000 – we can save you $3,600! The HP AH562A will fit in HP StorageWorks MSL 2024, 4048, 8048, or 8096 tape library systems, also currently available at Maximum Midrange and priced just as aggressively.
The bottom line is that offsite storage could be a viable option for some businesses. But look closer and you will see that owning your data backup and archiving hardware can be a much more affordable solution in the long run, especially for enterprise users who are dealing with terabytes worth of data.
If you are interested in an ultrium tape library or archiving solution for an enterprise application, contact Maximum Midrange. We are tape storage experts and we can deliver value that cloud storage and other hardware vendors have a tough time matching.