"for pure speed, today's tape drives are streets ahead. "

I'll certainly debate that!  In our lab, I see NetWorker sustain
backup-to-disk data rates to storage arrays that exceed all of the tape
devices (uncompressed) listed in
http://www.storagemountain.com/hardware-drives.html.  And this is with 4+1
and 8+1 RAID-5 LUNs - nothing fancy, standard stuff.  Sure, today's tape
devices are faster than many single spindle disks (no RAID) or older storage
arrays.  But tape is not faster, head to head, that a storage array LUN.
And, in the future, you can use that same storage array to perform a backup
via a replica (snapshot, clone, mirror), which can save terabytes in seconds
- something a tape drive will never be able to do.

tl

Terry Lemons
> CLARiiON Applications Integration Engineering
        EMC²            
where information lives

4400 Computer Drive, MS D239
Westboro MA 01580
Phone: 508 898 7312
Email: Lemons_Terry AT emc DOT com

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