Monday, June 11, 2007

Planning a funeral for tapes?

Have you been listening to the buzz on the death of tapes? I mean really listening? So what are you going to put on the next server you install?

I'm not sure about you but we are planning ahead. We switched all our customers to High-Rely USB and eSATA attached drive storage about a year ago and are currently evaluating some of the now affordable NAS from companies like Buffalo Technologies. In fact last Friday I had a few minutes so I hooked up the new TeraStation Pro II we purchased via D & H at a crazy low NFR price by signing up as a Buffalo VAR. I started with their setup CD (what was I thinking?) that an insert told me I needed an update driver for that could not be found on their site at the provide link. I then did it the right way and went to the NAS via http and was able to join it to my SBS Domain, add AD file permission integration, setup my health alerts and redirect my StorageCraft Server Edition backup images in about 3 minutes. The only thing really missing with this device from an MSP stand point is it doesn't have SNMP abilities (that I have found).

I love it when this stuff works and works fast! So, how is that tape solution looking now?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hate tapes too but you can't take your NAS off the site. Last week I had a client's facilities burn to the ground - it happens.

What we need is loads of cheap bandwidth to enable offsite backups fast using the disk based backup software of your choice.