Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:26:57 -0800 From: David Brodbeck <brodbd@uw.edu> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: easy way to determine if a stream or fd is seekable Message-ID: <CAHHaOuYG3_AFBC-551V2v081HbT3MQBrWEkV7asXzny9c-tiJA@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <4EC64BDE.70801@freebsd.org> References: <20111117175514.274040@gmx.com> <4ec5e676.P%2BDwfO0SrmiegcuB%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4EC64BDE.70801@freebsd.org>
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On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 4:13 AM, Stefan Esser <se@freebsd.org> wrote: > I have no idea, whether tape drives are still in wide use. For the > purposes that I administrated and used tapes for (gamma/particle > coincidence spectroscopy and large numerical simulations), large disk > arrays have completely replaced tape storage. Disk drives are cheaper > than tape cartridges, today ... > > >From what I've seen, tape for *backup* is mostly going away; disk-to-disk backup is as cheap or cheaper and much faster. Tape for *archival*, however, is still alive and well; when you have many petabytes of data that you're required to keep in storage forever, but may or may not ever need to read again, tape still looks more attractive. In big installations the tape drives are often buffered by disk arrays to minimize backup time and allow the tape drives to stream more effectively. You also still see tape used a lot for offsite backups, although as Internet speeds have gone up more and more of that is happening by sending bits across the network instead of tapes over the highway. The bandwidth of the proverbial station wagon full of tapes is no longer quite as impressive as it used to be. ;) -- David Brodbeck System Administrator, Linguistics University of Washington
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