Initial tape drive cost. For small businesses, the very high-end drives, such as DLT, are overkill. Large enterprises with significant volumes of data use these tape drives. At a cost of several thousand dollars, DLTs cost more than most small businesses want to invest. These drives typically work fine for home use, but I would not put crucial business data on them.
Tape drive lifetime.
Generally speaking, the more expensive the drive, the longer it will last. The less-expensive drives are for home use, or perhaps for a small office to back up one computer. Another way to evaluate a drive's useful lifetime is to look at how often the related technology changes. The pace is a little slower for business-oriented drives than for drives in the consumer market, where new products compete for shelf space with products only a few months old. If something happens to your drive, you might want to replace it with a comparable type so that you can read your valuable backup tapes.