Greg Secrist on ILM, and everything else under the "SUN"

What the economy and tape have in common ...

With all the bad press lately about the state of the US economy, it got me thinking about tape storage. I know, I know .... "how on earth did you make that leap?", you ask.  The answer is simple.  If you hear it from others enough, you start to believe it to be so.  No, this isn't going to be some "paranoid" rant about the hidden agenda of our news media.  I am simply making an observation and connection.  The media reports and repeats what sells.  They know that the average listener will perk up and pay attention when the content is "urgent" or may directly impact their well being.  That is why negative content outweighs the positive content 10 to 1. (based on loose statistical research)

So, what is the connection between the economy and tape?  The negative message.  With regard to the economy, if people hear it enough, they start to believe it worse than it may be.  It affects their attitudes about spending, investment risks, etc.  That snowballs into driving actual changes in the economy that the media continues to report.  Get the picture?  The same thing has happened with the role and value of tape in the data protection stack.  Certain companies have done a great job at marketing and reporting that "tape is dead".  They focus on telling stories involving the woes of tape, and drop subtle marketing jives that disk will solve everything.  The final link to my "economy" analogy is the costs of storage. The final jab is that disk is now cheaper than tape, making it a "no brainer".    You hear this at industry events, read about it in tech journals and periodicals, and get white papers sent to your inbox; all telling you that "tape is dead" and you better change before it is too late. 

The more rational message (and the reality) is that tape is still a valuable, affordable, and reliable data repository in the whole tiered storage model.  Tape storage plays an important part in a true ILM approach.  However, like your doctor tells you, "drink and eat in moderation."   The same applies to tape storage.  Use tape the way it is meant to be used, augmented by disk storage the way it is supposed to be used.  It is not an all-or-nothing technology.  That is why we call it a tiered storage model, with tape having a role as one of the storage tiers.  This is a subject that I plan to expound upon in future blogs.

In summary, don't believe the message that "tape is dead, just put it all on disks".  Like the economy, tape will rebound and continue to thrive as the negative hype starts to get old and we hear "wolf" one too many times. 

Posted at 11:05AM Jun 04, 2008 by Greg Secrist in Sun  |  Comments[0]