[nylug-talk] backup media

[Alex Pilosov]

Another thing I wanted to bring up:

Backups on tape may be soon outdated, and we'll think of them as quaint as 
punchcards.

The current HDD pricing is comparing very favorably with cost of tape 
media. For example, 500GB HD is ~100$ (20c/GB). 750GB is ~140$ (18.5c/GB). 

LTO-3 (400GB) media is 35$ (8.75c/GB)
LTO-4 (800GB) media is 100$ (12.5c/GB)
AIT-5 (400GB) media is 50$ (12.c/GB).

However, random access drive is much easier to deal with - no delays,
near-0 cost of reader, which results in ability to pack *lots* of backup
storage in small space (vs huge tape changers). I think we will see a
very-very-low-cost huge HDD "storage" arrays (no full access to all drives
concurrently, instead, a backplane with software-selectable access). I
don't know of a product like that yet, but I'm sure there'll be one soon
(think low-cost "thumper"-like chassis)

Historically, while cost per byte for HDDs has been dropping fast, cost of 
per byte for magnetic tape media has been dropping far slower. I think in 
a year or two, we'll see HDDs catch up with cost per byte.