If the vendors had any say in the matter, you'd be backing up your data from disk to disk. That's the solution offered by Adaptec, Network Appliance and others hoping to replace your slow, antiquated tape backup system with a faster way of doing things.

The benefits, according to vendors:

Faster restore times
Shorter backup windows
Cost-effective scalability
Decreased downtime
Reduced costs

Don't forget the advantage of less space needed, smaller chance of storage media failure (though it still can occur).

Traditionally, IT managers have clung to tape backup systems for two reasons - cost and portability. Both tape and disk storage offer similar portability, so the main force driving the decision to stay with tape is price. The cost of maintaining a tape system is significantly lower than most other storage options. However, advances in the disk storage technology have made disk storage much more affordable and harder for IT to ignore. Today's disk-to-disk storage options are all touting the same cost-effective capabilities, making it more difficult to stick with tried-and-true tape systems.

For more information on disk-to-disk storage, visit Adaptec and read the white paper on disk-to-disk solutions.