Hi Stan,

> We are trying to grapple with the problem of budgeting to purchase
> more tape media. I am wondering how other organizations handle this
> problem. Is anyone aware of any software and/or methodology that would
> help us decide how much money to allocate for tape media purchases
> over a given period of time? Thanks.

The biggest problem with budgeting for tape media is that the prices vary
over time. For instance, I had a customer once insist that we quote for the
3 years media in advance based on current prices, which came to a
ridiculously high price since they were intending an LTO-2 solution when
LTO-2 was brand new.

I've gone with the strategy of pricing the next 3 months worth of media at
current prices, then pricing the next 3 months worth of media at 10% less,
then the following 6 months media at 10% less again, and it usually comes
out a little better.

(While it's not something that's easy to convince accounting types on, tapes
should not be budgeted for under "capital investment" but rather,
"operational expenditure".)

Due to fluctuations in market prices, budgeting an absolute fixed amount
over more than 3-6 months, particularly for new media, is problematic at
best.

Cheers,

Preston.

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