Tape automation is the process of automating the tape backup process. Tape automation eliminates the risk of human error providing continuous tape backups around the clock with no intervention from anyone. Tape automation is the best way to assure that your data backup is completed on a consistent, reliable basis.

The need for tape backup automation emerged back with the first networking environments as a way to resolve problems with the handing of so many tapes on the early mainframe systems. It took huge storage facilities to store thousands of tapes costing thousands, or even millions of dollars for large organizations.

Over time better automation systems emerged, but the price of such systems kept them out of reach of most small to medium-sized businesses. Fully automated tape backup was typically only an option for large companies with high end servers-leaving smaller companies unable to automate their data backup processes.

Low-end server DDS tape backup technology has never really had a tape automation process that was reliable. Much of the problems arose from the DDS drives themselves which were not overly reliable to begin with. So even though the demand for automation was there in the low end servers few spent the money on these unreliable products.

Today there is a massive need for reliable, affordable automation in the low end server market. Disk technology has changed and grown and there is more and more critical data being stored on smaller servers. Businesses of all sizes require reliable backup solutions.

For these businesses it is critical that they have restorable tape backup; after all, the whole point of having a backup is to be able to restore data that was lost and now needs to be found. Tape Automation is meant to increase the reliability of the data backup process by providing tape backups on a consistent basis that no human could ever match with a single tape drive.

The VXA PacketLoader products offer an affordable option for small and mid-sized businesses to automate their tape backup systems. VXA PacketLoaders are easy to use and provide flexibility for your tape backup automation needs.

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