Storage and data protection are among the most basic functions of servers and data center (the so-called data center). It is not surprising, therefore, the fact that the basic element of each object equipment of this kind are a variety of devices backed up, whose task is to store and archive data. Store at the external media information processed in the server room or data center, they enable the recovery in the event of a hardware failure or human error.

The role of the archive corporate data usually remain so. tape libraries. Their name is taken from here, that the data are recorded on magnetic tape, which is extremely similar to those which have recently been used in magnetofonach. A key benefit of this type of media is relatively low price in relation to their capacity (measured in hundreds of gigabytes) and the relative permanence of record, while the drawback: a lower than in the case of hard disks and read-write speed. What constitutes a "tape library is extremely capacious, and includes both small, jednokasetowe device (so-called autoloadery) used in small data center, and enormous, free-standing library, recording company data on dozens or hundreds, tera byte (1 Terabyte to 1,000 gigabytes) cartridges. In most servers, however, apply to the average size of the device, and therefore those that fall within the type of rack cabinets, but also have storage rooms or at several dozen cartridges.