Tape Storage Adoption for Data Archiving, Long Term Data Retention Grows

Overland Storage recently conducted a nationwide survey of its customers in the United States to learn more about how they use Overland tape libraries. The results of the survey indicate that tape storage remains a critical component of the data center. Half of respondents said that their business could not manage without tape storage and 56 percent of respondents said they keep data on disk for a month or less before moving it to tape.

Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of respondents are using tape storage for onsite backups and 63 percent are using tape storage for offsite backups and disaster recovery, according to survey results, and 80 percent of respondents do not believe that archiving to the cloud will replace tape storage.

"Industry analyst research, Overland Storage customer survey data and the overall growth in the tape storage marketplace confirm that tape-based storage remains a critical part of any data protection strategy due to its cost of ownership, portability, lower energy consumption, long shelf life, robust design and compact footprint advantages," said Peri Grover, director of marketing for tape solutions at Overland Storage. Fueling the current expansion of the tape storage market is an increased demand for flexible solutions designed to address rapid business data growth combined with the increasing acknowledgment of tape's cost-effectiveness over de-duplicated disk, the report noted. 

Research from analysts at IT research firm Enterprise Strategy Group also indicates tape is the predominant storage media used for data protection due to its portability and, from an acquisition cost perspective, its price. As tape capacities continue to out-ship disk capacities and "the use of tape now dominates archiving over internal disk, external disk or cloud... tape's lead is expected to grow during the next five years, demonstrating 45 percent annual growth by 2015."

Overland also announced the availability of NEO 600s and NEO 800s, two additions to its line of automated tape libraries aimed at offering more choices for tape deployments in the tape storage market. NEO 600s and NEO 800s are designed to help solve data storage protection challenges. The NEO 600s packs up to 216TB of backup and archive capacity into a 6U form factor while NEO 800s provides up to 244TB in an 8U form factor.

In addition to high-capacity storage, the 600s and 800s feature multi-drive support. Utilizing LTO-5 tape drive technology, NEO 600s and 800s allows businesses to leverage the efficiencies of new linear tape file system (LTFS) technology. The NEO 600s and NEO 800s solutions are available with a starting of $14,499 and are included in Overland's "Trade Up and Save" promotion, which offers customers up to $2,000 in cash rebates for a limited time.

Tandberg Data Entering Into LTO-5 HH Tape Drive

Tandberg Data announced the availability of its new LTO-5 Half Height tape drives and media. Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drives can backup 3TB (compression ratio of 2:1) of data on a single cartridge in less than three hours, reducing IT storage costs and simplifying data protection operations.

“The introduction of the LTO-5 HH tape drive allows customers to future-proof their storage needs while reducing the number of backup tapes required, lowering their total cost of data protection,” said Simon Anderson, business unit manager of tape automation, tape drives and media at Tandberg Data. “Customers who buy the Tandberg Data LTO-5 tape drive will see increases in performance and capacity, as well as improvements in operational efficiencies,” he added.

Over the last decade, storage capacities on LTO tape cartridges have steadily increased from 200GB to today’s 3TB on a single LTO-5 tape cartridge. This means that the entire printed contents of the U.S. Library of Congress could be stored on fewer than four LTO-5 cartridges. The entire 600TB of genealogical data listed on Ancestry.com, including the U.S. Census data from 1790 to 1930, could be stored on 200 LTO-5 tape cartridges. And a single LTO-5 tape cartridge could hold 3,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drive includes industry-standard AES 256-bit data encryption, ensuring that tapes can be safely and securely transported for offsite storage. The Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drive is read and write compatible with LTO-4 media, and read compatible with LTO-3 media, providing investment protection and long-term archival benefits. Supplied initially with a SAS interface only, the Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drive comes in internal, external or rackmount configurations.

Tandberg Data LTO-5 automation products are planned for release later in the second quarter of 2010. LTO-5 HH tape drives from Tandberg Data can store nearly two times more data than LTO-4 tape drives, making them ideal for automation customers.

"Customers require high-capacity, cost-effective tape storage solutions to safeguard and archive their critical data," said Robert Amatruda, research director, data protection and recovery, IDC. "Tandberg Data's LTO-5 HH tape drive offers customers significant capacity and performance improvements over previous generations of LTO tape drives."

More Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH Tape Drive Features

• Enterprise-class features and performance in a small form factor
• 6Gb SAS or 8Gb Fibre Channel connectivity
• LTO WORM (write once, read many) for regulatory compliance
• Data rate matching reduces mechanical wear on the drive and extends tape life
• MTBF of 250,000 hrs at 100% duty cycle increases reliability
• Consumes 40 percent less power than previous LTO generations
• New partitioning feature (available this summer) simplifies archiving and long-term storage
• Well-defined six-generation LTO roadmap provides long-term data protection

Availability
Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drives and LTO-5 media is now available through Tandberg Data’s established channel of distributor and reseller partners. LTO-5 tape drive pricing starts at a MSRP of $2,995 and LTO-5 media pricing starts at a MSRP of $129. All Tandberg Data LTO-5 HH tape drives come with a 3-year warranty and advanced replacement service.