Posts by totaldatamigration

In today’s digital landscape, the threat of cyber attacks looms large, with organizations of all sizes and industries facing an ever-evolving array of threats, from ransomware and phishing attacks to data breaches and DDoS attacks. Despite best efforts to prevent such attacks, no system is immune to exploitation, and even the most robust security measures…

Hard drive data recovery is highly specialized work. While modern IT departments are extremely capable, most do not have the necessary equipment or training to repair damaged actuator heads or perform a platter swap.    Appropriate backup and archival practices can help your business minimize the need for hard disk drive (HDD) data recovery —…

The Digital Linear Tape (DLT) format is effectively obsolete, as Quantum ceased development of DLT drives back in 2007. Modern formats like LTO (Linear Tape Open) provide faster transfer speeds, higher capacities, and more robust support for long-term data storage. However, DLT tapes are far from extinct. The format is still used by organizations that…

Is your business continuity strategy robust enough for your enterprise?  Unfortunately, there’s a good chance that it isn’t. In one survey performed by CloudEndure (PDF), 71% of respondents experienced a downtime event in the previous year. Only 7% of respondents performed monthly disaster recovery drills — and 15% admitted that they never conduct disaster recovery…

Every enterprise should engage in end-of-life planning for data storage media. That extends to tape cartridges; while tape is often considered more reliable than other forms of data storage, all formats can become less reliable with regular use. LTO (Linear Tape Open) Ultrium is a high-capacity format designed for longevity — but like every other…

When crafting your tape backup/archive strategy, you’ll specify retention times — and ideally, you’ll also establish a strategy for the end-of-life (EOL) phase.   No storage device lasts forever, and tapes are not an exception. Over time, you’ll need to upgrade to modern formats (such as LTO-9), and depending on usage patterns and storage conditions, you…

LTFS (Linear Tape File System) is one of the most advantageous features of the LTO data tape format. With proper implementation, LTFS allows data to be accessed conveniently, similar to the accessibility of data on a disk or removable flash drive.  However, LTFS does not change the sequential nature of tape write processes. In other…

Until the early 2000s, the Digital Linear Tape (DLT) format was one of the most common enterprise data storage technologies. DLT and SDLT (Super DLT) were inexpensive and reliable, with relatively dense capacities: DLT-V4 drives supported capacities of up to 160 gigabytes.  Of course, technologies have advanced. In 2007, Quantum Corporation discontinued DLT, focusing instead…

An estimated 60% of all data is in “cold storage,” meaning that it’s infrequently accessed (if it’s ever accessed).  And thanks to a number of factors, that percentage is expected to grow over the next decade.  A report from International Data Corp. (IDC) and Seagate Technology estimates that the total amount of data created was…

The ninth generation of LTO (Linear Tape Open) introduced higher capacities and faster access speeds, providing a robust data storage solution for enterprise-level applications. However, no data storage medium is perfect: Data loss is always possible, even in systems with well-established redundancy.  Total Data Migration (TDM) provides a comprehensive array of data recovery services for…