Sorry guys I have not checked the site for some time. FredUG I have the 4 bay appliance it cost $10995. It gives me 4 drives(300GB each, I do not use compression) that I can backup to at the same time, better than buying LTO at $ 7000 for a single drive.
Technome to answer your question. It is ones own comfort level, here is my take on tape and this is a debatable topic. Firstly tape is rated for 30 years provided there has only been through one pass, the very fact that back hitching or shoe shining effect adds multiple passes over tape takes away the 30 years.
Secondly the reliability of tape is questionable being flexible media, tape snaps in dry climate and the oxide start flaking off after a period of time. I have had my fair share of tape problems so I lean towards disk because I still have a disk 2GB in size which is 8 years old and works fine ( slow though ).
Lastly, one would have to freeze in time the backup configuration, systems, backup software etc to be able to restore data at such a later stage.
Technology is constantly changing and the only way to have reliable data is to migrate the data to newer technology as and when one moves their systems towards this.
With this said, since the disks have a service life of 5 years it is safe to say that at a minimum data can be kept and archived for at least 5 years to disk, but given the fact that these disks are not in constant use the life of the disk is prolonged, I was told by maxtor that there is no study done but 10 years at a minimum is safe.
