The issue was disputed several times on this forum and almost everyday
somewhere in the world. The conclusion remains unchanged:
1. Tape is still the best medium for backups, especially for big amounts
of data and good performance. Of course "big" and "good" is varying and
grows up every year. It is true for mainframe as well as distributed
systems.
2. The tape is bad medium for data exchange, but sometimes stubborn
customers insist on it. Customer is always right...
3. Tapes are bad choice for application data, i.e. batch processing. It
leads to underutilization of tape volumes, unless you use virtual tapes.
4. Virtual tapes are expensive but convenient in many scenarios,
especially for "lazy" (more polite: conservative) customers still using
very small in size tape volumes (see batch processing). Usually virtual
tapes are back-ended with real tapes - it must be more expensive than
real tapes without "virtual" appliance.
5. Archival data. Not to mess with backups. Such data usually are small
to medium sized, performance is not crucial, but reliability of medium
is crucial. Last but not least: you have to keep both the medium and the
drive, unless it's fictitious archive.
6. Software installation. An issue specific to mainframe world. I think
that vast majority of software vendors do offer alternatives to tape. It
can be Internet download or CD/DVD medium. Reliability, performance and
capacity of the medium are not critical.
--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland
--
BRE Bank SA
ul. Senatorska 18
00-950 Warszawa
www.brebank.pl
Sd Rejonowy dla m. st. Warszawy
XII Wydzia Gospodarczy Krajowego Rejestru Sdowego,
nr rejestru przedsibiorców KRS 0000025237
NIP: 526-021-50-88
Wedug stanu na dzie 01.01.2009 r. kapita zakadowy BRE Banku SA (w caoci
wpacony) wynosi 118.763.528 zotych. W zwizku z realizacj warunkowego
podwyszenia kapitau zakadowego, na podstawie uchway XXI WZ z dnia 16 marca
2008r., oraz uchway XVI NWZ z dnia 27 padziernika 2008r., moe ulec
podwyszeniu do kwoty 123.763.528 z. Akcje w podwyszonym kapitale zakadowym
BRE Banku SA bd w caoci opacone.
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