{"id":7329,"date":"2021-08-04T20:05:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=7329"},"modified":"2021-08-04T20:08:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:08:49","slug":"what-is-an-active-archive-in-relation-to-backup-and-archiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/what-is-an-active-archive-in-relation-to-backup-and-archiving\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an \u2018active archive\u2019 in relation to backup and archiving?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

An active archive is a tiered storage topology\/solution that gives IT systems or human end-users access to data through a common, unified file system that automatically retrieves and places that data on the appropriate storage tier. As a whole, active archives utilize several media types: SSDs\/flash drives,HDDs, cloud storage, and importantly, magnetic tape.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Tekmart Enterprise Support Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy of: Enterprise Strategy Group<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tape is one solution for an organization to overcome the rising complexity and make retaining massive quantities of data easier. In a study, ESG found that 78% of the organisations it surveyed are using active archiving or tiered storage management, and of those, 89% use tape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reliability is a compelling benefit of a tape-based active archive. LTO tapes have an archival life exceeding 30 years. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They can support a million \u201cpasses\u201d and 20,000 write cycles per tape, and they have a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) rating of 250,000 hours at a 100% duty cycle. Additionally, data integrity technology is built-in with block-level check sums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to explore large datasets for new opportunities, customers and solutions is a significant competitive advantage, and active archiving is the means to achieve it. Businesses without active archiving may end up spending more money to store and manage growing data while missing out on extracting the value in their data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do active archives help businesses <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An active archive optimises the placement or storage of data on the most appropriate media type. It allows less time critical data to be stored on less expensive media, like LTO tape. And it eliminates the need to manually migrate data between storage systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Active Archive Alliance8<\/sup> active archiving benefits business by improving direction workflows, business continuity, and consolidating multiple storage systems into a single interface. Instead of operating independently in isolated siloes, active archiving aggregates archival data from different storage locations into an active archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backup and Archiving \u2013 not the same thing <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Backup<\/strong> creates a copy of data and restores it in case of data loss or corruption. A company may have multiple copies of the same information for backup purposes. Increasingly, flash or disk drives are the primary target for first line backup, but many businesses still use tape for secondary, immutable, and air-gapped backup targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archiving<\/strong> creates a \u2018goldmaster\u2019 copy of a file on a less expensive storage platform. Typically, the archive copy is one of a kind, freeing up the obligation to continue to backup that data and permitting more efficient use of primary backup storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Active Archiving<\/strong> uses tiered storage and intelligent active archive software to protect data and provide fast and efficient access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the amount of data retained in archive expands, an active archiving system combines highly scalable archive storage, like LTO technology, with intelligent software. According to the Active Archive Alliance9<\/sup>, \u201cthis software uses rich metadata, indexes, directories, tags, and global namespaces to unlock archives and enable high-performance search and retrieval\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

An open standard, like LTFS, can underpin an active archive system by making searching, reading and accessing data on LTO tape cartridges as flexible and open as accessing it from a drive volume.It\u2019s the combination of all these features and the distinctive application of active archiving that allows businesses to realise the value of their data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use cases include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n