Travan technology reliabilty

I work with small legal practices (2-10 people).  The principals of these firms have money to spend, but they are still concerned about managing costs.  Recently, one of my clients attended a conference where someone made a presentation about back office technology for legal practices.  The presenter dismissed Travan tape technology as unreliable and strongly recommended external/removable hard drives for backups.

Depending upon your backup needs and your risk profile, there are certainly situations where the hard drive backup may be the best solution.  However, it seems to me that if you want/need say a 6-media rotation (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri/Week1, Week 2), then the removable hard drive is impractical and where imho a tape-based solution is the most practical.

The comments about Travan reliability aren't consistent with my personal experience and are not consistent with the fact that there are something like 14 million drives and 200 million tapes in circulation.

This question is focussed specifically on Travan technology, its reliability, and its suitability for small back office backups.  Is it a good, dependable solution or should it be dimissed in light of better, equivalent cost technology?  While anecdotes are interesting, I am more interested in authoritative accounts for or against this technology and points will be awarded accordingly.  Please do not quote vendor literature unless it cites a less-biased source.