The Evolution of Backups - Part Two - Improving Capacity
Navigating Information Technology HorizonsSM
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New in 2007
Report #TCG2007025
February 21, 2007
The Truth about Tape — Nine Myths to Reconsider
Analyst: Dianne McAdam
Management Summary
The IT industry has been the battleground for a number of heated debates about the future
of technology over the last few decades. Remember the discussions about the death of the
mainframe? The mainframe was portrayed to be similar to a dinosaur, it was big, slow to
evolve…and, in the minds of many, extinct. The mainframe debate still continues, although
to a lesser degree than before. In fact, the mainframe has evolved from the big, floor-
hogging, water-cooled machines of old to small, energy efficient machines today. Main-
frames have continued to evolve and, unlike the dinosaur, are not extinct at all.
Later debates discussed the value of centralized versus distributed processing. During this
time period, centralized computing, the standard in most data centers, was considered costly
and inefficient. Distributed computing put the hardware and software in the hands of the end
users, where many thought it should be located. The end users got to experience the thrill of
managing and maintaining their own systems. Expectedly, that thrill soon faded, and many
end users asked IT departments to take back control of their hardware and software. The
proliferation of remote offices has again placed hardware in those remote locations. Stay
tuned – in another few years it is possible to see that hardware returning to the main data
center...again.
Additionally, there is the tape versus disk debate that has raged for years. Disk pro-
ponents have proclaimed that tape is dead for many