Disk to disk backup Disk to disk backup
Hard disk drives
storage news
STORAGEsearch

Tape drives

tape drives - click to see larger image
Megabyte found the advantage of taped
storage was: that he could store a huge
amount... But it sometimes took a long
time to retrieve what he wanted.
TapeMaster - tape duplicator
TapeMaster backup tape duplicator
from StorageHeaven
article:- Disk to Disk Backup versus Tape
Squeak! - How Solid is Hard Disk's Future?
"Solid State Disk" in Megabyte's glossary
Squeak! - the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide
article:- a Short History of Disk to Disk Backup
article:- Virtual Tape: Can You Afford to Ignore It?
Squeak! - the Fastest Growing Storage Companies
Squeak! - the 10 Biggest Storage Companies in 2008
Squeak! - Who's Eating Whom in the Storage Market?
article:- Disk-to-Disk Online Data Backup versus Tape Backup
Tape libraries, Jukeboxes, online backup, Data recovery, RAID, NAS, Tape Sanitizers
click for more info
Fujifilm Launches Wireless Backup Tape Tracker

VALHALLA, N.Y. - March 26, 2008 - Fujifilm today announced the immediate availability of the Fujifilm Tape Tracker, a wireless tool to help data managers increase security of data by tracking in real-time the location and status of sensitive removable media cartridges while in transit.

The Fujifilm Tape Tracker (patents pending) is designed within a 0.5" tape cartridge format, enabling it to fit snugly and discreetly inside nearly any tape media case. The Fujifind application uses the information, tracking, geo-fencing and notification capability of SC-Integrity's LoJack InTransit monitoring solution.

“The tremendous feedback we received from customers when we introduced this concept last year made clear - there is a significant desire to maintain visibility and control over removable media during shipment from one location to another,” said Daniel Greenberg at Fujifilm Recording Media. “The ability of tape to store large quantities of data in a cost effective, energy efficient, removable format make it a preferred medium to backup and archive critical business data. The Tape Tracker gives power back to the data managers to maintain a chain of custody for these assets as they move between data center backup, vault or disaster recovery destinations.” ...Fujifilm profile



Hifn Unveils Roadmap for iSCSI VARs

LOS GATOS, Calif - February 25, 2008 – Hifn today unveiled its partner program aimed at resellers in the the rapidly growing iSCSI market.

The company has high confidence in the appeal of its iSCSI tape encryption appliances and says that 10% of VARs who saw a recent Hifn webinar applied to become channel partners immediately afterwards. ...Hifn profile

Editor's comments:
Hifn's VAR programs have road warrior themes with names like Fast Start, Freeway and Autobahn. Those words are loaded with meaning and could backfire. Around here you can get a sense of what driving used to be like as you drive to the airport at 3am on a Sunday morning. At many other times it's quicker to walk.



Tandberg Data Launches 100 Slot Tape Library

Oslo Norway - January 14, 2008 - Tandberg Data today introduced the StorageLibrary T40+ 4U rackmount tape library

The StorageLibrary T40+ allows users to stack up to 5x T40+ libraries together, offering from 24 to 188 slots, with capacities ranging from 9.6TB to 150TB (native). Avaialble interfaces include LVD SCSI, Fibre Channel and SAS. MSRP starts at $10,495.

"The 20 to 100 slot LTO tape library segment is the growing segment in the tape automation market," says Hamish Macarthur from Macarthur Stroud International. ...Tandberg Data profile



Audavi Ships 250GB HardTape

San Jose, CA - November 26, 2007 - Audavi Corp today announced the addition of a 250GB capacity cartridge to its HardTape family of portable rugged storage devices.

The 250GB cartridge, based on 2.5-inch hard drive technology has a 50MB/s sustained data transfer rate. Rugged enough to survive a 2-foot drop onto concrete, the HardTape cartridge is an excellent alternative to tape for client data backup and disaster recovery, medical image storage, and security video recording.

HardTape is significantly faster than "burning" CD/DVD disks for data back-up and archive applications. HardTape cartridges can move easily from system to system using a bay or cable connection through any of the standard interfaces (USB, FireWire, SCSI, SATA). Featuring a black anodized aluminum case for additional durability, HardTape cartridges are pocket-sized and weigh about 8 ounces. ...Audavi profile



Tapewise Enterprise Checks Tape Media Errors

Farnborough UK - September 18, 2007 - Data Product Services today announces the release of Tapewise Enterprise.

Tapewise is software that writes data to a tape and then reads it again, tracking any errors, soft recoverable ones or unrecoverable ones, that occur. It streams a whole tape through a drive in this way and, with its Tape Error Map technology, produces a 3D graph showing errors encountered along the length of a tape when data was being read and written.

The user can decide what an acceptable error rate is and that boundary will be shown on the graph with any error rates above the user-defined norm instantly visible. The software supports a large number of tape formats: 3480; 3490; DLT; SDLT; 3590; 9840; 9940; T10000; LTOs 1, 2 and 3 and 3592. Costs start at $16,000 approx. A free 14-day evaluation copy is available. ...Data Product Services profile, Tape drives, Storage Testers



Bus-Tech Announces SAN Support for Mainframe Data Library

Burlington, MA - August 13, 2007 - today, Bus-Tech, Inc. announced upcoming support for clustered SAN support in its Mainframe Data Library; the tape-on-disk controller for IBM and compatible mainframes.

This enhancement to the MDL allows fibre channel attached disks to be shared across multiple MDL Emulation Nodes. A SAN attached MDL now has all the redundancy and high-availability characteristics previously available only for IP-attached storage implementations. The MDL provides multiple independently operating Emulation Nodes to insure the highest availability. Each Emulation Node provides a minimum of 2 FICON or ESCON channel interfaces and a fully populated MDL emulates up to 1,024 mainframe tape drives. The MDL supports in-line data encryption and IDRC compression. ...Bus-Tech profile, Disk to disk backup



TDK Launches New Tape Cartridge

GARDEN CITY, NY - May 7, 2007 - TDK Corp announced that it will launch sales of its DAT 160 Data Cartridge, in June.

The DC-DAT160 offers 160GB capacity (with data compression) and is the world's first DAT 160 media to pass compliance testing by the DAT Manufacturers Group. TDK will concurrently launch sales of its DAT Cleaning Cartridge II. DAT 160 is a 6th generation data cartridge which is backwards compatible with DDS-4 and DAT 72. ...TDK profile, Storage Media



Tape Backup Drops Out of Top Storage Searches

Editor:- April 2, 2007 - STORAGEsearch.com reports the top 5 subjects viewed by storage searchers in March were:-

(1) - Disk to disk backup,
(2) - Solid state disks
(3) - Hard drives
(4) - RAID systems, and
(5) - NAS

Tape backup related searches have dropped out of the top 20 subjects viewed.

Pageviews in the top 10 subjects grew 28% compared to the year before period. For more info on the top subjects, articles etc see Market research



Only 15% of Users Think Backup will Never Go Entirely Tapeless

Santa Barbara, California - March 8, 2007 - A series of extensive end user surveys conducted by Peripheral Concepts, Inc. reveal a major shift in the small and medium IT operational plans for implementing high availability secure businesses.

On the subject of Backup , D2D and VTL... Faster data retrieval, reliability and ease of management are the major reasons for implementing VTL. Half of the respondents estimate their backup window and restore time need improvement, seeking seconds for Recovery Time Objective for part of their data. Some experience 3 times less unsuccessful backups with disks. In spite of a tape business that holds strong, 55% estimate the timeframe for a tape-less operation to be less than 4 years, and 15% believe it will never happen. ...Peripheral Concepts profile
.
click for more info
.
storage history - tape drives - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
Tape drive manufacturers
Disk backup / Tape Libraries

ARRAID

Audavi

Breece Hill

Condre

Cristie Data Products

Cybernetics

Dell Computer

Dot Hill

Freecom Technologies

Fujitsu

GST

HP

IBM

InoStor

LaCie

LAND-5

Luminex Software

M5 Data

Mast Storage

MicroSolutions

NEC

Overland Storage

Procom Technology

Promicro Systems

Qualstar

Quantum

RAID

Seagate Technology

Sony

Sun Microsystems

Tandberg Data

Tape Laboratories

Voyager

still can't find it? check the acquired, dead & renamed list
Disk to disk backup
Disk to disk backup

solid state disks
Solid state disks
Teralyte removable disk to disk backup for SMBs
ejectable disk to disk backup for SMBs
Teralyte from Idealstor

online backup and disaster recovery from CRC Data Protection
CRC Data Protection offers online offsite
data backup and recovery, bare metal restore
and business continuity for the enterprise.
.
article by Engenio
Disk to Disk Backup versus Tape - War or Truce? - article by Engenio

Will disk to disk backup make tape backup obsolete? That's a question that's been debated hotly here on STORAGEsearch for many years.

At the extreme polarized ends of the argument are tape media makers like Sony, who in an article here made a case for the long term survival of tape, and at the other end of the argument are disk to disk supporters like STORAGEsearch whose editorial view has been that tape doesn't have a viable role the midsize market any more. In the middle of this argument are the moderates who say that maybe tape and D2d can co-exist. This article by Steve Gardner at Engenio takes the middle course line - and says why he thinks there's still a place for both. See if you agree. ...read the article, ...Engenio profile, RAID systems, Disk to disk backup
.
read article by Plasmon
Bare Media Exposed - Looking at the Contenders for Optical Media Archiving - article by Plasmon

Optical archiving has become a legally mandated storage technology in many markets. There are a lot of new optical media technologies and packaging formats to choose from. But which ones will stand the test of time in terms of data reliability and cost of ownership? Plasmon, founded in 1987, has nearly 2 decades of experience as a systems and media supplier in the optical archiving industry. This article by Steve Tongish, Plasmon's Director of Marketing EMEA, looks at the critical factors for the new products now available and those emerging so you can assess which will work best for you. ... read the article, ...Plasmon profile, Optical Libraries
Tape Backup Fails Most Enterprise Customers

TORONTO, Canada - September 20, 2005 - Tape backup is failing most enterprise customers according to an online survey of IT executives, conducted over a 45-day period commissioned by Asigra.

75% of respondents indicated that their companies suffered unrecoverable loss of corporate data they thought was successfully backed up to tape due to unreadable, lost or stolen media. The survey sought to better understand how IT staffs safeguard mission-critical information throughout the enterprise, including remote offices, and how the backup and recovery process for the remote office/branch office - could be improved. Among the survey findings:
  • 63% said they encountered unreadable tapes when they tried to retrieve data with 76% of those cases reporting a direct impact to their business from loss of productivity to punishments for regulatory compliance infractions.
  • 61% said that they back up remote offices to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster, while 17% indicated that there are no formal backup procedures in place at their remote offices.
  • 20% of respondents said their business has experienced data loss due to lost or stolen tape media.
  • Data recovery-focused features that respondents found valuable in ensuring a secure and smoother backup/recovery process included keeping the latest backup version locally on disk (93%) and encryption for data while 'in-flight' and 'at-rest' (85%).
"The results of this survey seem to indicate that there is still a severe problem with lost corporate data at remote sites resulting from issues regarding the reliability and security of traditional tape-based backup systems at remote sites," said W. Curtis Preston, vice president of Data Protection at GlassHouse Technologies. "Remote sites are much better served with a disk-based data protection system that can provide local fast recovery, while automatically replicating backups to a central site for disaster recovery." ...Asigra profile, Disk to disk backup

Editor's comments:- I'm not surprised by the results. Nor should you be. So why do corporations still do tape backup?

Well market research shows that over 70% are considering moving to disk to disk backup - but that will has its own problems too - which we'll write about in a later article. Let's put this into context. How many of you have been involved in a car crash - including small scrapes while parking?

And did it stop you from ever sitting in a car again? Life's not perfect. Diversity in backup technologies is the only foolproof way to make sure that you can get your data back when you need it. But that costs more than most are willing to pay.
The Future of Tape? - from an article by Freeman Reports

O
verall tape drive growth is slowing. According to the current market forecasts published by Freeman Reports, tape drive unit shipments will grow at a 2% CAGR through 2010. A growth rate of 7% is projected for tape automation systems. The number of tape drive suppliers has shrunk from 74 in 1990 to 20 in 2000 and to 10 in 2005. … but strong demand for tape will continue for years. ...read the article (pdf), ...Freeman Reports profile, Market research, Tape drives, Tape libraries
.
IDC Reports on Tape Market

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - May 16, 2005 - HP and IBM continue to dominate the worldwide branded tape market for the 2004 calendar year, a new IDC study reveals.

In the branded tape drive marketplace, HP holds 29% of all tape drive volume shipped worldwide and 29% of revenue for 2004. IBM holds 17% of the worldwide volume, but actually leads HP in revenue with a 33% share. Other key suppliers include Dell and Certance.

In the branded tape automation marketplace, HP shipped the most midrange libraries worldwide, with 26% of the volume. IBM and HP were statistically tied for 1st place with respect to revenue, each at 23% of total revenue for 2004. However, IBM only shipped 22% of the volume in this category. Other key suppliers in the midrange category include StorageTek and ADIC.

"Suppliers in the worldwide tape market have become increasingly reliant on top-tier server and system customers as a route to market," said Robert Amatruda, research manager, Tape and Removable Storage at IDC. "Tape storage products will continue to be an important component of the overall server and storage infrastructure." ...IDC profile, Tape backup

storage search banner

STORAGEsearch storage manufacturers news articles Fibre-channel adapter cards Tape libraries
STORAGEsearch is published by ACSL