Quantum ships high-end LTO-5 tape library

Earlier this April, Quantum introduced tape drives, autoloaders and media based on the latest generation of LTO tape technology - LTO-5 Ultrium. The company announced a high-end LTO-5 library that scales up to 16PB of capacity.

The Scalar i6000 replaces Quantum's Scalar i2000, and can be configured with up to 12 modules, 5,322 tape cartridge slots, 96 tape drives and eight import/export stations with 528 slots (twice as many as the i2000).

LTO-5 tape nearly doubles the capacity of 800GB LTO-4 tape cartridges to 1.5TB (or 3TB assuming 2:1 compression) and LTO-5 tape drives have a native data transfer rate of up to 140MBps (280MBps in compressed mode, which translates into a backup rate of 1TB per hour).

Quantum's Scalar i6000 tape library comes with an external 8Gbps Fibre Channel connection, and the LTO-5 drives are available with 4Gbps or 8Gbps Fibre Channel interfaces.

As do LTO-4 tape drives, LTO-5 drives include native encryption. Quantum's libraries support Scalar Key Manager and Quantum Encryption Key Manager (Q-EKM), and with the introduction of the Scalar i6000 the company now supports RSA key management.

Also new with the Scalar i6000 is an enhanced version of Quantum's iLayer management software and the introduction of Media Data Integrity Analysis (MeDIA) software. MeDIA is similar to media monitoring, analysis and management tools available from tape media manufacturers, but it also monitors "deep archive" media (i.e., tape cartridges not being actively used), according to Ryan Duffy, Quantum's automation product marketing manager. "Users can be assured that their archived data is available when needed," says Duffy.

MeDIA software runs in the background and scans tape cartridges to detect potential media problems and ensure data integrity.

The new version of Quantum's iLayer management software also includes a media security notification feature that helps prevent unauthorized media removal.

An entry-level configuration of the Scalar i6000 is priced at $63,000 with 100 tape cartridge slots and no drives. LTO-5 drives are priced at about $20,000.

Quantum also introduced the 4.0 version of its Vision software, which can be used to manage the company's Scalar tape-based and DXi disk-based backup products in tiered storage environments. Enhancements include expanded monitoring, more granular and customizable reporting, and improved alerting and troubleshooting features.

(infoStor.com)

Sun Touts Tape, LTO 4 as Vital Data Center Technology

It's only been a few months since Sun Microsystems Inc. of Santa Clara, CA, introduced support for the LTO 4 tape cartridge format. But already, the company has rolled out LTO 4 Fibre Channel (FC) drives across its complete suite of tape automation libraries: the StorageTek SL24, SL48, SL500, L1400, and SL8500.

"The LTO 4 FC Tape Drive delivers high capacity and increased performance for open systems environments," says Alex North, group manager for tape at Sun Microsystems. "This improves storage density in new or existing libraries and allows for easy upgrades to newer technology in the same automation footprint. We are seeing solid traction in the market and have outpaced our expectations."

At the high end of the Sun tape library portfolio stands the StorageTek SL8500 (PDF), with a starting price of $195,830. This modular library can accommodate up to 56 petabytes, or to put it another way, it can scale to 70,000 slots. In addition, it can be shared across multiple environments – this includes mainframe, Solaris, AS/400, Windows, Linux and many flavors of Unix. Not surprisingly, Sun positions it as the ideal platform for consolidating many smaller libraries into one high-performance system.

"We are seeing a lot of consolidation in the tape marketplace, which continues to drive double-digit annual revenue growth in our enterprise library, the Sun StorageTek SL8500," says North. "Additionally, there continues to be growing demand for high availability, which is driven in part from the consolidation that results in higher utilization of tape drives and thus 24x7 operation."

For those who don't need all that capacity and who have space constraints, the Sun StorageTek SL500 (starting at $16,400) is one alternative. Instead of being a colossus that takes up a ton of room, this is a rackmount tape automation model (i.e. it can slide into an existing rack). It only takes up a total of 8 rack units of space.

This library scales from 30 to 575 LTO slots and can deal with multiple cartridge types such as LTO tape and SDLT / DLT-S4. Its maximum capacity is around 460 terabytes (uncompressed) – more than enough for most needs. It can accommodate up to 18 tape drives with a maximum throughput of just over 7 terabytes per hour. Sun targets this machine at such applications as email servers, database applications and file servers.

"We are also seeing strong adoption of the scalable libraries in the distributed and small business space, as evidenced by continued growth of the SL500," says North.

StorageTek Tape Drives

Sun also offers a wide range of tape drives. For instance, Sun StorageTek LTO Tape Drives can store up to 800 gigabytes. The data on these drives can be moved at rates of 120 megabytes per second. When used with LTO 4 cartridges, the performance advantage over older formats is quite significant. For example, with LTO 3 tape, it takes an average of 19 seconds to load and ready a tape – with the newer format, only 12 seconds. Other comparatives between LTO 3 and 4 on these tape drives are as follows: file access time for the first file down from 72 seconds average to 57 seconds; although it holds twice the capacity, LTO 4 takes an average of 54 seconds to rewind compared to 49 seconds for the previous generation; and data transfer rates have increased from 80 MB/sec to 120 MB/sec (uncompressed).

(Source: EnterpriseITPlanet.com)

Quantum LTO-3 Backup Tape Drive

Quantum LTO-3 HH tape drive is an internal half height (HH) drive. Model number of this high speed LTO-3 drive is TC-L32AX-BR and its color is black. Quantum now offers a 3 year rapid-exchange warranty for its LTO3-HH drives. These new LTO-3 tape drives deliver outstanding performance. Quantum LTO-3 HH drive is backward compatible. Quantum LTO-3 drive is more advantageous as it has the capability to write information to all of LTO-3 tapes with high level of data accuracy. LTO-3 tape format meets your backup storage needs at an affordable price. This LTO-3 HH drive by manufactured by Quantum can write data on all LTO-3 tape cartridges including: C7973A HP LTO3 tapes, 183900 Maxell LTO-3 tape, LTX400GWW Sony LTO-3 tape, MR-L3MQN-01 Quantum LTO3 tape etc.

LTO-3 Quantum drive can also write data to the second generation LTO-2 tapes including: Sony LTX200GWW LTO-2 tapes, 183850 Maxell LTO-2, HP LTO-2 C7972A tape, Fuji LTO2 backup cartridge, Quantum MR-L2MQN-01 LTO2 tape, Dell LTO-2 340-8701 data tape etc.

So far we have mentioned about the data writing ability of Quantum LTO 3 drive. When we talk about the data reading capability of these Quantum tape drives, they can read data from all LTO3, LTO2 & LTO-1 backup tapes. Part numbers of some LTO backup tapes are mentioned below: C7971A HP LTO-1, LTX200GWW Sony LTO2 tapes, 183900 Maxell LTO3 tape, C7972A, MR-L2MQN-01 Quantum LTO-2, D2405-LTO2, LTX100G LTO1, 26220001 Fuji LTO-2 Backup Tape, 24R1922 IBM LTO 3, 16598 Imation LTO-2, TDK D2406-LTO3, 17532 LTO-3 tape , Fuji LTO-1 tape, Maxell 183800 LTO1 tape etc.

All of these LTO2, LTO-1 and LTO3 tapes deliver cost efficient results with the highly durable LTO-3 HH Quantum drive. These LTO tape cartridges have been carefully engineered and designed for greater durability, compatibility and cost efficiency. LTO backup tapes are more advantageous as their recording capacity and transfer speed doubles after data compression. This means that there is a 100 percent increase in the capacity and transfer rate in compressed mode.

Open nature of LTO distinguishes it from other tape technologies. LTO tape's open nature increases its scalability and makes it more advantageous. LTO-3 HH Quantum drive offers faster transfer speed of 245 GB/hr and can store up to 400 GB un-compressed data. Quantum LTO-3 HH is the ideal tape drive for your data center as it is enables easy integration and installation. LTO-3 tape drive assures increased media reliability and optimizes the output characteristics. Backward compatibility of the Quantum LTO-3 HH drive secures your I.T investments.

Cleaning cartridge enhances the drive's useful life. Highly efficient Quantum LTO-3 HH offers superior compatibility and is equally compatible with all of the following universal LTO cleaning cartridges: Maxell 183804 cleaning cartridge, HP C7978A, LTX-CL Sony, TDK D2404-CC, Quantum MR-LUCQN-01, 15931 Imation and IBM 35L2086 cleaning cartridge etc.

These LTO cleaning cartridges and LTO data tapes are developed by the most trusted and vastly experienced manufacturers of media storage products. LTO backup cartridges have longer useful life and also allow faster searching and data recording/reading.

Reference: http://www.content4reprint.com/computers/hardware/

Benefits of HP LTO Tapes

LTO tape technology is collaboration between IBM, Certance and Hewlett-Packard. Cooperation and openness of LTO media has assured backing of a broad range of media, automation licensees and tape drive that provided unparalleled performance and durability. HP provides innovative, reliable and efficient LTO tape products at best prices. HP LTO tape technology has been specifically designed and manufactured with in-depth knowledge and requirement analysis of every component in restore/backup storage operation, media, hardware, host, interface and specific data types. Powerful technologies of existing tape formats have been enhanced and employed in the HP LTO backup tape format. HP LTO is very cost efficient, intelligent and reliable storage media. LTO tape media offers high data integrity even after 1-million passes. The usage information and media profile are recorded in the LTO cartridge memory that can be read with in fraction of time away from the tape drive. The media loading time is very fast in HP LTO tape format.

LTO cartridge memory records positioning information that helps to accelerate the file access. Other information stored in LTO cartridge memory includes error logs and media loads. HP LTO ultrium ensures maximum system throughput as it has the new advantageous technique which helps it to match with the host speed. HP ultrium tape drives provide high level of robustness and reliability and are very user friendly which makes it ideal for library environment. According to the LTO CVE (Compliance Verification Entity), the LTO tape media

can be interchanged across generations and vendors.

LTO tape products are compatible with Computer Associates ARCserveIT, Veritas, Legato and other backup softwares. HP test programs ensure LTO tape products' compatibility with the leading NT & UNIX servers. Capacity and performance will be doubled in every new LTO version to achieve 1.6TB capacity is a single LTO cartridge with 1 TB/h transfer speed. HP LTO tape format is set to outlive other tape technologies because of its credible improvements in performance & capacity. HP LTO tape technology is more advantageous, user friendly and economical. LTO tape format is very robust, reliable and cost efficient.

HP LTO is very cost efficient, intelligent and reliable storage media. HP LTO ultrium ensures maximum system throughput as it has the new advantageous technique which helps it to match with the host speed. LTO format supports Ultra-2 SCSI and fiber channel. A single HP LTO-4 C7974A tape cartridge can accommodate 1.6 terabytes of information in compressed mode. The defected areas of the LTO tape media can be identified by the LTO tape drive, which improves reliability.

Read more: http://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/hardware-articles

LTO vs. DLT

The Tape Storage Battle Has Begun, Again

It’s time to ring the bell for another round of sparring between tape storage heavyweights. The first points to be tallied go to Certance, which released its LTO-3 Tape drives within weeks of the rollout of LTO-3 licenses and months before analysts expected them to hit the market.

Certance, a division of Seagate, has been dunking it out with Quantum Technology over the tape storage market for years. A successor to Digital Equipment Corporation's storage division, Quantum holds the rights to the DLT Tapes and SuperDLT standards, in direct competition with LTO.

The new release from Certance is one of many in the back-and-forth cycle of one-upsmanship that has been going on for years between LTO and DLT standards. The cycle is a boon to the data center, which has seen exponential increases in tape capacity and transfer rates during the past half-decade.

LTO

This time, LTO-2 tape users are going to see capacity and data transfer rates double with an upgrade to the third generation of LTO. LTO-3 features 400GB of native capacity, with data transfer rates from 80Mbps to 160Mbps depending on compression. The transition from LTO-2 should be smooth, with the new LTO-3 drives offering both read and write backward-compatibility with LTO-2 tapes. The new standard even provides some backward-compatibility with LTO-1 tapes, allowing users to at least read these tapes with their newer drives.

Released in August, the Certance CL 800 is the first model to feature these new specs. Priced at approximately $6,000, the new unit comes in internal, external, or rackmount form with an Ultra 160 SCSI interface. (Fibre Channel drives are expected by year's end.) Because LTO technology is under development with the cooperation of a number of manufacturers, buyers should have the opportunity to choose among a number of LTO-3 devices as soon as manufacturers such as HP and IBM follow Certance's lead.

SDLT

This is in contrast with Quantum's proprietary SDLT tapes technology, which is released through the company and a few of its select partners. Now Quantum has some catching up to do as its most up-to-date standard, SDLT 600, has only a 300GB native storage capacity and a data transfer rate of 72Mbps. The company doesn't plan on rolling out an update until next year, when it promises to double the capacity. But the early release of LTO-3 licensing shows that it is possible to advance tape storage more quickly than expected. It still remains to be seen whether Quantum is as nimble as the LTO consortium of researchers, though.

No matter how long the wait, it won't do much to improve SDLT's market share. LTO is already winning the battle for tape supremacy. Forecasting from Freeman Reports estimates that by the end of the year, DLT/SDLT equipment sales will only reach $559 million, compared to LTO revenue of $886 million.

Quantum's SDLT 600 does still have a couple of advantages over LTO-3. The most obvious is affordability, coupled with newly released support for WORM. Last month Quantum extended WORM support free of charge to all of its SDLT 600 products through the installation of its new DLTice software. LTO-3 is still lacking this critical feature, with developers promising WORM support in the very near future.

Reference: http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/p2638/32p38/32p38.asp&guid=

PS: Content can be differentiating as by time.

Backup Tape Standards, Capacity, Speed: DDS/DAT, DLT, LTO Ultrium

In 2010 a 1-terabyte hard disk costs about $100. An 800 gigabyte LTO 4 tape cartridge costs about $40. This makes hard disks a practical alternative to tape, for data backup. However, tapes do still have a place in corporate IT departments. Magnetic tape drives are surprisingly fast. High-end systems can exceed 100 megabytes/second.

Tape advantages, compared to hard disks

• Simpler and more robust mechanical construction. The tape is physically separate from the tape drive (unlike a hard disk). There are no moving read/write heads that can crash.
• Smaller and lighter. This is useful if large quantities of data are stored or sent by courier to an off-site disaster recovery center.
• Long term archival reliability. Some tape manufacturers claim 30 years. Hard disk warranties rarely exceed 5 years.

Tape disadvantages, compared to hard disks

• No random access to the files, slower to restore a specific file.
• Lower read/write cycle lifespan, typically a few hundred per tape.

Introduction to Tape Drive Basics

Tape drives are built a lot like hard disks drives. Internal tape drives are caseless drives designed to be mounted inside a standard hard disk bay. Many have SATA, SAS or SCSI interfaces. External tape drives are standalone units, typically with a SAS, SCSI or USB interface. Rackmount units are also available for data centers.

A 2:1 compression ratio is assumed for most tape formats. A tape with a "real", native or uncompressed capacity of 160 gigabytes will also be stated as having a compressed (effective) capacity of 320 gigabytes.

Read/write speeds are commonly given in megabytes/second. Compressed and uncompressed data speeds are also used. A drive that can transfer 10 megabytes/second will be specified with a compressed transfer speed of 20 megabytes/second.
For a quick estimate of transfer times:

• 1 megabyte/second = 3.6 gigabytes/hour
• 10 megabytes/second = 36 gigabytes/hour
• 100 megabytes/second = 360 gigabytes/hour
  

In this article, only native or uncompressed figures are given for speeds and capacities.
The prices of tape drives given below are for single-tape drives. More expensive autoloader (jukebox or autochanger) tape drives are not considered. Transfer speeds are for a specific model, and can be higher or lower for different brands and models.
Sony discontinued the sale of their AIT tape drives in March 2010, therefore this format will not be covered. Travan (maximum 20 gigabytes) and VXA formats are also not covered.

Ultrium LTO Storage Tapes

LTO (Linear Tape Open) is an open standard from Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Quantum. These are high performance systems, with the higher capacity drives costing a few thousand dollars and tapes reaching $40. The different LTO formats, capacities and speeds are:

• LTO 1 tape, 100 gigabytes, 20 megabytes/second
• LTO 2 tape, 200 gigabytes, 40 megabytes/second
• LTO 3 tape, 400 gigabytes, 80 megabytes/second
• LTO 4 tape, 800 gigabytes, 120 megabytes/second
• LTO 5 tape, 1.5 terabytes (not released yet)
• LTO 6 tape, 3.2 terabytes (not released yet)

How to Choose the Best Backup Tape Format Type

DDS/DAT tapes provide affordable storage for small enterprises, or can be used as dedicated backup for individual servers. VXA backup tapes (not covered in this article) should also be considered. Data centers with large amounts of data and small backup windows will need to look at the larger, faster and more expensive LTO or DLT drives. NAS and RAID disks can replace or complement tape systems.

The LTO website has an overview of LTO Ultrium tape generations. The DAT website has a DAT/DDS roadmap. The Amazon website lists a wide variety of tapes and drives from different manufacturers. The list can be narrowed down by searching for specific tape formats.

Read more: http://bit.ly/9lox17

Next Generation Imation LTO Ultrium Tape Cartridge

Imation has developed new advanced LTO-5 backup tape cartridge, which is the world's first tape format that offers recording capacity in Terabytes. Imation LTO5 media tape features compressed storage capacity of 3 TB and 280Mbps transfer speed. Imation has made significant advancements to LTO-5 tape cartridge over its previous tape generations. Storage capacity of Imation LTO5 data tape in native form is 1.5 terabytes.

Imation has enhanced data compression and servo technology, which enables the LTO-5 media to store more amounts of information on same length of data tape. In order to accommodate the data growth, the data center managers will not have to add more space. Therefore the data administrators can store their existing footprints within lesser shelf space. Imation LTO5 has a smoother tape surface, which has resulted in increased track density and reduced error rate.

Imation's exclusive Tera Angstrom mechanism has increased data throughput capability and SNR (signal to noise) ratio of LTO-5 tape cartridge. Smooth tape surface allows faster transfer speed and prevents tape slippage during drive's read/write operations.

The previous four generations of Imation LTO tapes are listed below: Imation LTO-4 tape (part number 26592), Imation LTO-3 backup tape (part number 17532), Imation LTO-2 storage tape (part number 16598), and Imation LTO-1 tape cartridge (part number 41089).

Imation LTO5 tape is robustly engineered. Its unique cartridge architecture secures the cartridge's inner parts from bumps and shocks. Imation LTO5 storage tape features innovative corner snap technology, which allows smooth tape flow thus maximizing read/write accuracy. The corner snap prevents entering of debris and contaminants into the cartridge. Corner snap system is specifically designed to protect the LTO-5 tape cartridges during their shipment. Imation has devised a new three piece spool architecture that distributes the pressure over the recording medium and keeps the tape medium flat. Therefore the recorded data tracks along the entire tape length are protected to ensure low error rate, thus resulting in longer archival life.

High speed LTO-5 is the only backup tape cartridge that features new partitioning functionality. Partitioning mechanism has been introduced to address the ever increasing requirements of the market segment. LTO5 tape's partitioning functionality assists in space management and file control. Therefore this allows faster searching. High capacity Imation LTO5 data tape delivers exceptional media reliability under harsh working conditions. Imation has employed advanced servo writing process in its LTO-5 tapes cartridge, which assures increased read/write efficiency by optimizing the tape tracking. Innovative technologies introduced by Imation have enhanced overall transfer speed and decreased the off-track servo errors. LTO5 is the second generation of LTO format that offers hardware based encryption functionality. Therefore this feature makes it the ideal tape storage technology for transportation and backup of sensitive data. Imation LTO-5 data tape also offers write-once read-many functionality.

Reference: http://bit.ly/9jeVAF

LTO-5 Breathes New Life into Tape Storage

Tape storage technology has been dying for many years — if you believe disk backup vendors like EMC (NYSE: EMC). Yet the rumors of its demise continue to be exaggerated.

Greg Schulz, an analyst with StorageIO Group, points to the imminent release of LTO-5 tape, the latest version of the Linear Tape Open format (LTO), the overall viability of LTO, and the fact that LTO-6 is already in the works as sure signs that tape has a long shelf life.

"It is a myth that tape is dead," said Schulz.

And like zombie movies that many thought would die out decades ago, tape continues to do well at the box office.

"The $3.5+ billion tape market continues to thrive in the data protection market, no longer just for data backup but also for online data archives," said Molly Rector, vice president of worldwide marketing and product management at Spectra Logic Corp.

The release of generation five of the Linear Tape Open format is set to unleash further legions of the undead upon unsuspecting data center managers. Known as LTO-5 by most, it is formally called LTO Ultrium Tape format generation 5 — Ultrium is the name of the tape cartridge format, but few seem to use it outside of official announcements by the LTO consortium. Put together by HP (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Quantum (NYSE: QTM) to bring about more tape standardization and to advance tape cartridge technology, the consortium is releasing the specs on LTO-5 and soliciting licensing deals from data storage vendors prior to the official release "later in the year" — widely believed to be by the end of this quarter.

LTO-5 Specs: More Speed, Capacity

LTO-5 hikes the speed up to 180 Mbps and capacity to 1.6 TB in native form (not compressed). The compression ratio in LTO-5 tape format will be 2:1, which is the same for all earlier versions. Compared to LTO-4 tapes, generation 5 doubles the capacity and boosts the speed by another 50 percent.

In addition to consistent bumps upward in speed and capacity, each version brings in new features. LTO-3 tapes brought in WORM (write once, read many), encryption in LTO-4, and now partitioning is being brought in for LTO-5.

"The generation 5 specifications are designed to reflect the current and future needs of data managers worldwide while adding new features, such as partitioning, to enable additional control and efficiencies via space management," said Rob Clark, vice president of business operations at Quantum Corp.

Mike Karp, an analyst with Ptak, Noel and Associates, pointed out that LTO-5 is backward compatible with both LTO-3 and LTO-4; LTO-5 devices can read LTO-3 media, and can both read and write to LTO-4 media. Note, however, that the earlier generations of hardware will not be able to read LTO-5 media. So a move to LTO-5 tapes means, at the very least, that all tape drives will have to be swapped out.

How does it compare to competitive offerings?

"The specs for LTO-5 clearly outdistance the Sony Tape offerings in everything but compression ratio," said Karp.

That said, he doesn't anticipate LTO-5 changing anything on the mainframe tape market, where LTO has historically had little to no play.

Schulz sees LTO-5 as stimulating the LTO-4 marketplace.

"Granted, initially the media cost of LTO-5 will probably be higher until volume picks up, however that could also enable bargains for LTO-4," said Schulz. "What makes this interesting is that many LTO users skip a generation: They go from LTO-1 tape to LTO-3 to LTO-5, or, LTO-2 tapes to LTO-4 to LTO-6, while others may have a mix of LTO levels leveraging backward compatibility while boosting density and cost advantages."

He sees LTO-5 as an easy sell: If data demands have doubled, a single LTO-5 device and media would do the work of two LTO-4 tape drives. If, on the other hand, data rates or volumes are flat, jumping from LTO-4 to LTO-5 can help to reduce the number of devices and drives for performing backup while meeting service requirements.

"Of course the benefits are greater when going from LTO-3 to LTO-5," said Schulz. "For those that need the speed or performance, LTO-5 is a good option for early adopters, while helping to make more LTO-4 viable for others who can wait."

He said the impending release of LTO-5 will be good for the entire tape ecosystem: media vendors like Fujifilm and Imation (NYSE: IMN), as well as drive, tape library and assorted systems vendors like HP, IBM, Quantum, Sony, Spectra Logic and Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA). Even for non-LTO vendors who are enhancing their technologies, it will indirectly help by demonstrating the continued investment and enhancement to tape.

"In the case of Sony, they have had an "on again, off again" focus on data centers, and SMB and SOHO along with consumer markets are gravitating towards disk-based solutions," said Schulz. "However, where Sony still has a play is in the non IT-space such as video-related, where digital recording continues to consume large amounts of tape media."

And new research announced today suggests that tape innovation will continue far into the future.

IBM and Fujifilm scientists have recorded data onto an advanced prototype tape at a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch. The next-generation dual-coat magnetic tape based on barium ferrite (BaFe) particles could enable cartridge capacities that hold up to 35 terabytes of uncompressed data — that's more than 20 times greater than the capacity of LTO-5 drives.

Continue Reading… http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/continuity/features/article.php/3860261/LTO-5-Breathes-New-Life-into-Tape-Storage.htm