Tape Storage Gets a Makeover with New 1TB Devices
Date : 16 Jul 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkFor example, it is significant that both IBM and Sun Microsystems have unveiled new tape-drive products this month that promise to break the one-terabyte-capacity barrier. Moreover, HP and Sony now say they will be partnering in the creation of a next-generation Digital Audio Tape (DAT) format that will deliver improved performance and capacity over current DAT tape offerings.
An Ideal Choice
Many small to midsize businesses currently rely on DAT to back up and restore critical business data. So it's no wonder that many tape customers "are concerned about outgrowing their existing tape drives and do not want to switch away from a cost-effective and trusted technology like DAT/DDS," noted IDC Research Director Robert Amatruda.
Featuring backup speeds of up to 86 gigabytes per hour with 2:1 data compression, the new DAT 320 standard now under development will offer up to 320GB of capacity on a single cartridge, which is twice the capacity of today's DAT 160 format.
"The doubled capacity with the DAT 320 will be an ideal choice for small to midsize businesses who have limited space for extra hardware," Amatruda said.
Even better, DAT 320 is expected to consume fewer watts per gigabyte than previous tape generations and will be backward-compatible with today's DAT 160 format. Though the two partners will be jointly developing DAT 320 as an open standard, each company intends to separately offer its own DAT...