Is immutable storage a replacement for tape?

[zoltank]

Is immutable storage a replacement for tape?

With tape I can air gap my backups. Is the immutable storage an effective replacement? Would this allow me to safely get rid of tapes?

[dalbertson]

Yes and no. It depends upon your use case.

Immutable s3 is air gapped and can replace tape but it tends to be more expensive than tape. Also if your retention times are long term then tape or vtl may be a better bet.

If you are keeping tapes for short term air gapping then yes look at using immutable backups and simplifying your strategy.

[Gostev]

It is very important what specific storage are you talking about.

Amazon S3 or other public clouds with immutability:
Yes, this replaces vaulted tape completely as an immutable storage from a technical perspective.

On-prem object storage with immutability:
Not so much, as an insider could always reset or physically destroy the actual device - so the protection is only against ransomware and remote hackers (and also partial, in case they can get to the storage device management console via iLO/IPMI).

[dalbertson]

Correct, Thank you @Gostev

I shouldnt assume that you mean Amazon S3.

As Anton stated it depends on your use case. @zoltank Can you elaborate on your specific use case? Do you use AWS or another cloud? Or is this on prem S3?