Disaster Recovery Made Easy With LTFS

Here are some other reasons why LTFS is gaining popularity as a disaster-recovery system staple:

1. LTFS tapes are self-describing. Because each LTFS cartridge contains its own index, including the metadata and the file index, recovery does not depend on a separate index database—a huge plus if the data center itself is knocked out. You can drop the LTFS cartridge into nearly any LTO tape reader and drag-and-drop necessary files, even before your applications software is restored.

2. Tape is inexpensive and long lasting. Tape has long been the medium of choice for storing data offline. It can sit on a shelf for 30 years or more without being powered. In contrast, disk drives typically last three to four years before needing replacement.

3. LTFS transcends hardware. To the end user, an LTFS tape is like a giant USB flash drive. You can exchange, access and modify LTFS tapes among different operating systems, including Linux^®, Windows^® and Mac OS^®X.

4. Tape is portable. Disk drives have a hard-drive head positioned very close to the spinning drive platter. This head can damage the platter during transportation. Tape-drive heads remain in constant contact with the tape, so they are less likely to harm the data. This makes tape the medium of choice for transport between your enterprise data centers and an offsite vault.

5. LTFS can beat cloud speed limits. Backing up crucial data to the cloud seems like a good way to protect it—and often, it is. However, if you must restore large amounts of data, bandwidth limits can slow recovery. Restoring an entire data center's data could take days via the cloud—compared with overnight via tape courier.

Nothing is certain in life or data security, but with LTFS tapes, offsite backups and a trusted storage partner, you're getting close.