Tape Data Migration

Why Choose Gillware for Tape Migration?

Gillware was founded on the principle that data recovery should not be a prohibitively expensive service for the customer, and our tape migration approach reflects this idea, ensuring that migration quotes are fair. We offer a guarantee to our customers too, and if we are not successful, you don’t have to pay us anything!

Incidentally, the Gillware Data Recovery Experts have a >99% track record of recovering data from client tapes. So far, we have never failed to deliver data on tape. We hope to keep this run of results going, so if you are in the market for a data recovery provider, get in touch with Gillware and we will do our absolute best to reunite you with your data.

Your Tape Data Migration Provider

Tape migration is an in-demand service, and tape data products are still very popular. Tape extraction, tape migration, and tape conversion service options have grown in popularity since the growth of cloud technology. Organizations may require their legacy tape data ingested into cloud storage. Some businesses are required by legislation to retain data for several years, and sometimes the easiest option is to get this data in the cloud. Problems are encountered when users cannot access their critical tape data; perhaps the tape drive has broken down and spare parts are no longer manufactured, or perhaps the tape data contains the security configuration of a legacy server such as an IBM iSeries.

Types of Tape

Gillware is regularly contacted to recover critical tape media, sometimes critical disaster recovery data or system saves from critical backup servers. Unfortunately, many clients do not have the correct type of equipment or software to read the data format of the tape media. More often than not, the data on the tapes is in a vintage format and our clients need the data transmuted to something much more modern.

Tape Migration Services Example

One such customer approached our organization with an old FoxPro database backup, but they needed the data moved into their Salesforce cloud provider, and unfortunately, they had no way of doing this in-house. The customer reached out to the Gillware customer service team at 877-624-7206 (or [email protected]) who provided a shipping label for the tape media to the customer to get the tapes into Gillware’s custody (free of charge).

Once the storage devices were in our custody for migration services, after an initial inspection by the Gillware Data Recovery Experts, a firm quote for services was given to the customer, who was delighted to proceed.

Migration Services Process

This is how we did it:

Step 1

We get the old data off the tapes; this is handled by Gillware data migration services. We make a copy of the data using a tape drive that’s compatible with the customer’s media.

Step 2

A Gillware Database Administrator (DBA) will then inspect the data captured from tape and rebuild the FoxPro database tables.

Step 3

Arguably the hardest part of the recovery method, our DBA will work with the customer to understand their new SalesForce instance, then write the code needed to transmute and insert the data up into the cloud.

How Do We Migrate Tape Data?

Just like the FoxPro example, we follow a tried and tested recovery procedure for the migration of your historical data. First, we assess your tape archives and send them to Gillware (preferably in flight cases). Next, our engineers will audit your data, we will work out the latest versions of your files, and discover if any of the tapes are duplicates.

Next, we image the tape using our proprietary systems, transform the records into a cloud-ready format, and then ingest the information into any cloud of your choice. You can then choose for us to return or destroy the media (depending on which you prefer for security or other reasons) when you are completely satisfied with our service.

Ready to Get Started?

If you could make use of the Gillware Tape Migration and Tape Conversion service, get in touch today.