Silent Bricks vs. LTO: beyond acquisition costs

Not surprisingly, the world of broadcasting and film needs to store large amounts of data. We all know from our smartphones that storing images now requires a lot of memory space. Moreover, for this particular industry, the material must be able to be processed quickly if required. Many companies in broadcasting use LTO tapes for storage. Recordings made in distant parts of the world must be transportable, and these are LTO tapes.

Mistake

However, LTO tapes are rather fragile, so transportation is already a tricky business. There is an alternative: Silent Bricks. But as a supplier of Silent Bricks, we are often told that they are too expensive for this use case. LTO is cheap and, according to the calculations of many companies in broadcasting, it is cheaper to make four LTOs than to use one Silent Brick. However, there is a big but to this assertion. The but is that this calculation is a mistake, or at least calls for a major nuance.

Include all costs!

In fact, when comparing costs, not all costs are included. Up to certain storage quantities, Silent Bricks are even slightly cheaper. More importantly, with a roughly equal purchase price, other points weigh more heavily in Silent Bricks’ favor. Much greater security, speed and flexibility, for example. As storage moves toward a few Petabytes, LTOs are slightly cheaper. But the cost of infrastructure (space) is much higher, which is a non-negligible cost. Silent Bricks are maintenance-free, or better: maintenance is included in the service contract. The administrator really doesn’t have to worry about such a system: the savings in personnel costs can thus be quite substantial!

Conclusion

In fact, according to these calculations, Silent Bricks are quite cheaper than LTO tapes. Add to that the technical advantages of Silent Bricks and our choice is made. Therefore, when buying a system for storing large amounts of data, don’t just look at the purchase cost!