The new trend of backups is to move away from using the traditional Tape drive.  Here are a few pros and cons for using the tape drive for backups:

PRO

1. Tapes are compact and are easily portable.  They can be taken offsite without a high risk of damaging them.
2. Inexpensive to maintain.  Once the jobs are set, it is just as simple as rotating out the tapes.
3. Tapes hold up to DR senerios better.  For example, if there is a power outage, there is little risk that a tape would be affected the same way as other backup methods.

CON

1. Time.  Slow to recover from backup.  It takes time to extract data from tape.
2. Capacity.  You are limited to the size of the tape, and the size of the tape drive.  With the cost of data decreasing, you also need to keep up with the capacity of the tapes. 
3. Tape life cycle.  The average tape typically lasts only a few years.