Tape backup has been declared dead many times but it still remains
the media of choice for many organizations for several reasons:
- Modern tape cassettes have tremendous capacity - up to 200 Gigabytes
- High-capacity tape cassettes maintain a cost-effective edge over
other backup media, including hard-disk drives and optical technologies
such as DVD
- The compact form factor of tape cassettes, as compared to hard-disks,
make them easier to handle and store
- Tape backups can be automated using robotic technology
Over time, researchers have made many improvements tape backup technology.
- Improvements to tape drives themselves
- Improvements to tape coatings allowing an increase in the
density of data storage
- Improvements to the tape base resulting in tapes which are thinner,
and tapes with straighter edges, permitting more data tracks closer to the edges and higher
capacity