StorageTek, locally represented by CMS, an MGX company, has announced the availability of the StorageTek 9840 Fibre Channel Tape Drive.
The 9840FC is the Fibre Channel version of its industry-leading 9840 tape drive that continues to set rate-of-adoption records for high-end storage products with 20 000 SCSI and ESCON drives shipped to date. The 9840FC delivers the high performance, high capacity, reliability and fast access capabilities of the 9840 across traditional enterprise and SAN environments.
The combination of extreme scalability with high performance, high capacity and mainframe-class reliability has resulted in tremendous demand for the 9840 in supercomputer to traditional mainframe environments, as well as a multitude of open systems UNIX and Windows NT customers.
The speed of the 9840FC transforms tape from an auxiliary storage device into a mission-critical tool for holding digital text, video clips, X-rays, check images, e-business data and other important, frequently accessed information.
"StorageTek`s 9840FC is designed to be integrated into a SAN environment," says Bob Amatruda, senior analyst, tape and removable storage at IDC. "No costly or complex bridges and converters are needed with the 9840`s native Fibre Channel interface."
"The 9840FC allows customers to think differently about their storage needs and requirements," says Nelson Diaz, StorageTek VP and GM of client-server tape. "Now it is possible to do with five 9840s what used to be done with 10 to 20 SCSI attached midrange tape drives.
"With fewer drives and faster access, customers can reduce the number of distributed tape libraries they require, re-centralise their resources - and get better performance," said Diaz. "That puts the total cost of ownership for this sophisticated technology at a price point comparable to older technologies - a true breakthrough in storage technology."
The 9840FC`s ability to integrate into an arbitrated loop or switch environment allows data centres to directly address today`s connectivity and distance issues, and better utilise precious server resources. Native Fibre Channel extends the distance limit to 500 metres, as opposed to the 25 metres SCSI allows, simplifying cabling and device sharing. The 9840FC moves data at up to 20 megabytes per second with 2:1 compression, and can approach 40 megabytes per second at 4:1 compression with highly compressible data.
Mid-point load improves search time and speed of first access to data, with as low as an eight second response time. Additionally, 9840 cartridges store up to 20 gigabytes native, so more data is being moved faster. The 9840FC`s dual-ported design adds reliability with redundant paths, simplifying fail-over issues.
The 9840FC is the first drive to comply with the ANSI FC-Tape standard. The FC-Tape standard addresses interoperability and device behaviour and is one of the first steps in building the infrastructure that will aid in the deployment of SANs.
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