| Conclusion |
With so many backup options out there, the advent of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and the ever-lowering cost-per-Gig of hard drive storage, we may never again see the days of Zip's near-ubiquity revisited with the Rev. That isn't necessarily a bad thing: The PC market has become so diverse that it's rare that any product or service can be a truly "one-size-fits-all" solution.
In many industries, however, the Rev and similar technologies are already winning dramatic amounts of market share from DAT tape backups. At the same time, it's also clear that Iomega will have to compete with not just tape-based rivals, but a whole host of different types of backup solutions -- some old, some new.
Overall, the Rev meets this challenge admirably. We found performance to be snappy, and the overall cost structure makes a Rev-based backup system not exactly cheap, but economical. Throw in an estimated lifespan of 30 years, and you've got a very long-term backup solution that fits almost every price point.
Iomega has made a compelling offering with the new, larger-capacity Rev drive. The disks are tiny and portable, the technology is robust and (theoretically) long-lived, and the cost of buying into the Rev 70 is competitive with rival technologies in many cases. If you're interested in serious "archiving" rather than simply short-term, causal backups, the Rev 70 may make good sense for you -- regardless of whether you're a small business or an individual PC user.
Pros:
- Speedy drive performance
- Rugged media carries estimated 30-year lifespan
- Disks are also tiny, making them cheap and easy to store or transport
Cons:
- Steep initial drive and media costs
- Minor driver issues
| SysOpt Product Info |
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Ratings: (Best of four stars)
 Best for: Individual user/SOHO Backups |
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