When you’re looking for Knoxville IT services, be sure to choose a provider that’s up-to-date with modern technology. It may sound ridiculous, but some IT firms are still trapped in the 1990s, which is now considered part of the stone age of tech, especially for backups. Firms that still use magnetic tape for backups are antiquated, since digital cloud storage is the more reliable and effective solution.
Don’t Be Stuck in the 90s
The 90s was a great time for film and music, some of which has stood the test of time. But technology is a much different story. Even a lot of art from the 60s stand up as notable nostalgia, but you wouldn’t want to go back to room-sized mainframes, right? The most legitimate Knoxville IT services, by contrast, live in the present and plan for the future.
The reason tech isn’t the same kind of pop culture as art is that it has specific utility for a certain time frame. In other words, most tech components these days aren’t even meant to last longer than a decade. Magnetic tape actually goes much further back than the 90s and may have been the best storage technology for its time, but digital technology has become the safer, more durable, and fastest way to access data.
Why Tape Still Exists
Magnetic tape still exists mainly because it’s more cost-effective for small businesses. But many times, you get better results when you pay a little more. You really wouldn’t want to depend on tape, for example, if you run a 24/7 business in real time and you have a significant following that depends on your services. If your business has a reputation for continuity and minimal downtime, you certainly don’t want to risk damaging that reputation with tape.
The biggest problem with tape is that it takes too long to rewind and fast forward to find specific data. Another problem is that the tape can break, stretch, or become degraded over time. It’s simply not meant to last forever, nor is it always reliable in the short term. Even though tape itself is cheaper, the machines that run the tape and managing those machines can be costly.
Benefits of Digital Storage
Digital storage is now the standard since it’s more durable and an easier way to archive data. With the price of disk memory dropping the past decade, cost is no longer a major barrier. Broadband costs have also fallen while speeds have increased, making cloud storage the most practical type of backup system.
When you turn to an experienced cloud provider, you get a much better deal than old-fashioned systems. Not only will the cloud provider create constant backups of data on multiple servers, but you can also feel confident that it complies with HIPAA regulations. That will ensure that confidential data will have maximum protection and that there is almost no chance of data getting lost or damaged. But if you rely on one local backup system based on tape, data can potentially get tangled up and even demagnetized.
Conclusion
Your Knoxville IT services team needs to provide you with the most up-to-date backup technology to ensure smooth business continuity. Contact us at Allevia Technology to learn more about how we can modernize your business with efficient and stress-free cloud services.
