Why Immutability Is Important

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Pros and Cons of Tape Storage and Backup
Tape is the oldest and least user-friendly method of backing up and storing data. However, since it is self-contained, it is inherently air-gapped and immutable. Moreover, it is often stored off-site. Tape also supports WORM (write-once-read-many) technology, meaning it can never be overwritten or erased.

Some tape manufacturers have even increased their security. For example, Quantum now allows users of some of its Scalar tape libraries to partially extract by creating a physical “air gap.” This prevents the tapes from being seen or selected by a malicious bot.

Tape has its drawbacks. The most notable is that tape is only suitable for data that is no longer in use or is used very rarely.

Today, most businesses don't want the hassle and labor associated with tape storage and backup. They prefer cloud computing, or at least data center-based computing—a combination of cloud, virtual, and physical technologies.

To ensure data protection in any environment, immutability and/or an air gap are required.

Immutability means that files cannot be changed for finland mobile database set retention period, making it ideal for data that needs to remain intact and safe for a long period. Companies can set an expiration date for immutability or leave it indefinitely. After this period, the data can be accessed or deleted according to the set rules.

Immutable backup and storage systems have many benefits. From a security perspective, immutability protects data from malicious actors. However, immutability also helps prevent accidental deletion or modification of files, improve compliance and ensure data authenticity, speed up disaster recovery times, and protect backups from retention policy changes and deletion of recovery points.

The concept of immutability is traditionally associated with object storage, since it is inherently immutable. Additionally, the standard for object storage today is to use object locking, which is the same type of technology used in most immutability technologies. Since object storage systems essentially break files into thousands of encoded and encrypted pieces, it is also typically tamper-resistant.

Despite the value of these capabilities, object storage does not work in all scenarios. File and block storage systems, for example, are much better suited for structured data. Production data is not a good candidate for immutability, since users will likely want to change it at some point.