[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Dave Froble
> via Info-vax
> Sent: August 19, 2018 12:14 AM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.
> 
> On 8/18/2018 7:42 PM, already5chosen at yahoo.com wrote:
> > On Sunday, August 19, 2018 at 12:33:18 AM UTC+3, Paul Sture wrote:
> >> On 2018-08-07, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> >>> On 8/6/2018 11:21 AM, Bob Koehler wrote:
> >>>> In article <pk7pe6$c30$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, Chris
> <xxx.syseng.yyy at gfsys.co.uk> writes:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> One of the reasons why unix and C became so popular in the early
> >>>>> days is because the C library provides platform independent access
> >>>>> to i/o, storage and a shed load of other functions. If I write a c
> >>>>> program for any flavour of unix, or linux and don't try to be too
> >>>>> clever, it will almost always compile and run on anything else.
> >>>>
> >>>>      You obvioulsy haven't done enough with ioctl().  Or am I being
"too
> >>>>      clever"?
> >>>>
> >>>>      Years ago, I found I had to get into ioctl() just to identify
the contents
> >>>>      of a magtape.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Basic always worked well with magtape.
> >>
> >> COBOL does too, and VMS COBOL can understand EBCDIC too.
> >>
> >>> Worthless capability now.  What's a magtape?
> >>
> >> Tape is not dead yet:
> >>
> >> "Reel talk: You know what's safely offline? Tape. Data protection
outfit
> Veeam inks deal with Quantum":
> >>
> >>
> <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/14/veeam_gets_taped_up_by_qu
> an
> >> tum_in_antiransomware_deal/>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
> >> intelligent are full of doubt.                 -- Bertrand Russell
> >
> > Tapes are not dead as backup media. Because types are still a little
cheaper
> per GB than reliable HDs. And significantly lighter.
> > Tapes are long dead for any other use.
> > So, the only program that has to know tape IO control codes is your
backup
> program. But you likely wouldn't want to write it by yourself.
> >
> 
> Back in the day, we used tape for backup.  However, we were interested in
> days, weeks, months, and maybe years.  Now I think back 20-30 years, and
> figure that if I had a tape that old, either it would not be readable, or,
I would
> not have a tape drive for it.
> 
> Short term backup, yeah, but long term stuff, maybe not.
> 
> I keep stuff on several disks, on several computers, and still I worry.
>   Nothing is forever.
> 

Fwiw.. at a recent large DC migration there were a number of very large tape
robotic units that were moved. They had been recently upgraded in the last
couple of years.

One concern (which might indicate the seriousness of this Cust focus on
tapes) this Customer had was "what happens if there is a large EMP attack?"

They wanted tapes held in secure vaults many miles from source DC because of
this.

Other Customers also state reasons like requiring a 100% air gap between
source data and backup media. 

In addition, tapes are also getting pretty high density these days.

Reference:
<https://newatlas.com/sony-ibm-magnetic-tape-density-record/50743/>
"Scaled to a useable device, that means 330 TB of data could fit onto a
palm-sized cartridge, which is a big leap above the 15 TB cartridges
currently available."

(I wonder how long it would take to fill a 330TB tape?)


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com