IBM adds high capacity, high performance to tape storage benefits

IBM`s revolutionary TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Drive 3592, adding both high capacity and high performance to tape`s other operational benefits - such as portabililty, off-site archiving and an historical perspective on data - reinforces tape`s continuing role as a significant option in an organisation`s infrastructure consolidation.

The first of its kind, IBM`s new tape drive can be configured either for fast access or high capacity.

If high capacity is required, IBM`s 3592 can hold up to 300GB native with a data rate of 40MBps. If fast access is the main concern, the 3592 can be configured as a 60GB tape which, with the same transfer rate, allows data to be found more quickly. With data compression of between two and three times, the high capacity option starts approaching 1TB of data on a single cartridge.

IBM SA`s storage solutions manager, Ben Gosling, says that because IBM takes a total view of storage, it has always believed in the importance of tape as a means of both cutting the total cost of storage ownership and improving productivity.

"Everyone else was declaring tape dead while we quietly moved from number three in the market at the end of 2000 to number one at the end of the third quarter of 2002 - by constantly enhancing our products.

"We`re superbly placed to do that. IBM`s $5 billion annual research and development spend enables us to leverage technologies across all our brands, getting significant benefits in terms of innovation and quality. And, in the process, we achieve the ability to fit solutions to customer problems rather than squeezing their problems to fit our offerings."

In launching the new drive, IBM has addressed the needs of two target audiences. First there are the 3590 users who need something larger and faster than their current drives, which hold 60GB native and transfer data at 14MBps native. The 3592 cartridge is the same size as the 3590, so the automation need not change. The drive itself is half the size of the 3590, so users can fit two drives into the same slot as a single 3590. And since there is no change of the actual automation hardware, they can evolve gradually from one drive to another, as their needs determine. They will, in any case, have to keep at least one 3590 drive in place if they want to read legacy tapes, as the data format for the new drives is different.

Then there are the users of competitor tape silos, who can replace their existing lower capacity, lower performance drives with IBM`s 3592 drive.

Future enhancements of IBM`s tape technology will include a write-once, read-many version of the new drives. This will help customers manage the increasing need for data retention as driven by regulations.

IBM will also introduce a segmentation capability for the 3592 cartridge. Whereas now users must format the tape for fast access or high capacity, in future they will be able to use an initial section of the tape for fast access and the bulk of the remainder for high capacity. This will enable a single cartridge to hold 60GB of fast-access data and some 210GB of regular data.

IBM also plans to offer different cartridge capacities for users who want to hold particular volumes of data on a single tape, without wasting any additional capacity on it.