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Storage |
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Too many GB? - Get your storage options sorted! |
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The requirements for digital storage and archive have increased dramatically over the last decade. To meet these demands, new technologies have been developed and improved to fulfil the volume and storage speeds required for IT equipment backup |
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Storage falls into two groups:- archive and immediate access. |
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Tape is a classic example of archive storage, where the data usually has to be transferred to computer before use. Benefits of Tape include reliable backup, low cost per GB (if large amount of data storage is required) and fast transfer rates with recent tape technologies, this includes SDLT (Super Digital Linear Tape) and LTO 2 and LTO 3 storage systems
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Popular now are immediate access systems giving the user greater speed and flexibility |
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Removable optical storage such as CDR and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) may appear to provide cheap storage of small volume data as often the drives are already installed in the users PC, however long term reliability is questionable and the media tends to be susceptible to physical damage. DVD Ram provides a more resilient optical storage, with the disc encapsulated in a cartridge, but with a financial penalty. |
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The faithful floppy has seen its day. The tiny storage capacity and its tendency for media failure moves the floppy disc to other duties such as loading Windows start up drivers. Super Floppy forms such as Zip struggle when compared to CDR and DVDR on a cost basis. However, ease of use, rewritable, media stability and larger storage volumes produce a compelling reason to use Zip where data quantity is less than 750MB. |
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As hard disc prices have fallen, and disc sizes have increased, perhaps the best method of data backup is to copy to another hard disc. Lacie, Maxtor and other manufacturers produce external hard discs up to 1TB with USB2 and Firewire connections. No additional cost is required to interface these units to most modern PC's, and transfer rates are fast. The downside is reliability of the internal hard drives. |
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NAS (Network Attached Storage) provides a means of backing up a large quantity of data, with direct fast access, and also data protection with Raid arrays. This type of backup storage provides access to all users on a network; speed limited by the network, but at a premium with the most expensive per GB of all the recent current storage options (but check the speed!). |
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The following table summarises these technologies and relative costs |
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Media |
Storage |
Media Cost |
Cost per GB |
Speed |
Drive Cost |
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Floppy Disc |
1.44MB |
£0.20 |
£139 |
500 Kbits /Sec |
£5 |
Zip 250MB |
250MB |
£11 |
£44 |
2.4 MB/Sec |
£76 |
CD R |
700MB |
£0.15 |
£0.22 |
7MB/Sec |
£30 |
DVD +R |
4.7GB |
£0.20 |
£0.05 |
5.5MB/Sec |
£60 |
DVD Ram |
9.4GB |
£5 |
£0.54 |
4.1MB/Sec |
£280 |
DLT 40/80 |
40GB |
£23 |
£0.58 |
6MB/Sec |
£1800 |
SDLT 160/320 |
160GB |
£37 |
£0.23 |
16MB/Sec |
£3200 |
LTO 2 |
200GB |
£48 |
£0.24 |
30MB/Sec |
£3000 |
LTO 3 |
400GB |
£78 |
£0.20 |
55MB/Sec |
£3000 |
External HDD |
500GB |
NONE |
£0.20 |
40Mb/Sec |
£100 |
NAS |
4TB |
NONE |
£2.50 |
300Mb/Sec |
£10,000 |
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Rent IT can supply a wide range of these products on both short and long term rental. Our IT staff are also happy to discuss you requirements if you are not sure what option you need taking into account:- |
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Compatibility |
Storage volume |
Media costs
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Performance (Security, speed etc) |
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We look forward to assisting you. |
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