Laptop tape: portable USB tape drives offer new mobile disaster recovery options - Storage Networking

Computer Technology Review, Jan, 2003 by Robert Hawkins

Real-World Examples

Exhibitree in Irvine, Calif., is an example of a company that uses portable USB backup solutions to ensure valuable data as well as the productivity of its account managers, exhibit designers, production staff members, etc. The company takes advantage of the latest technology in developing exhibits and special events for customers in the apparel, automotive, communications, medical and technology industries. It uses a combination of 25 Apple iBook, iMac, G3 and G4 systems for conceptual design, renderings, cost estimating, production drawings and graphic layouts, as well as maintaining communications within the company and with suppliers. Seagate Travan TapeStor USB drives are used to backup critical data files on a regular basis. Seagate drives have saved the day on more than one occasion by restoring critical files. "We had to restore Word files that got deleted by our sales group a few times and the Retrospect Backup software that comes with the Travan drives makes it easy to do that," said Kevin O'Connor, a production designer at Exhibitree. "Seagate's Travan product line provides Mac users like ourselves a complete system backup solution for archiving and restoring data, The drives are easy to use, highly reliable and reasonably priced."

The Spokesman-Review newspaper at Spokane, Wash., uses portable USB backup solutions for over 600 computers. To keep the presses running and protect the growing amount of digital content produced by the paper around the clock, a reliable and easy-to-use backup and storage solution is essential. "In the past year, we purchased a number of all-in-one desktop and notebook PCs, none of which have an internal slot for a tape drive," explained Benson. "They do have USB ports and our positive experience with Seagate products over the years led us to the USB-compatible Travan drive, which has become our de facto standard for these types of machines." Benson said the tape drives provide an effortless, efficient and economical storage solution. "The price is nice and USB makes the installation easy, but quality is my main concern," he emphasized. "The Travan drives from Seagate get the job done fast and reliably."

With 480 Mbps of throughput, the new USB specification offers plenty of bandwidth to handle today's fastest tape drives and enough headroom to handle faster drives for years to come. The latest USB 2.0 drives take advantage of that specification to offer the portability, capacity, speed and low cost needed to make it practical to ensure the productivity of every mobile professional while preserving valuable intellectual property.

Robert Hawkins is director of product line management at Seagate Technologies (Costa Mesa, Calif.)

www.seagate.com