The facts about Plasmon`s UDO archival storage

Riaan de Leeuw, Datashuttle`s General Manager, answers some of the most common questions about UDO (Ultra Density Optical) storage technology.

The last year has seen major technical developments in the optical storage industry. The use of high-density blue laser technology has ushered in a new generation of storage with Plasmon`s own 30GB UDO product leading the market for professional archives.

While these changes are very exciting, they also create a number of questions about the use of this blue laser technology and how it compares with magnetic disk, tape and other optical storage products. At Datashuttle, we have been working with our partners to answer some of the most common questions about UDO archival storage strategies.

UDO stands for "Ultra Density Optical" and uses high-density, blue laser technology to record data on "Phase Change" optical media. 30GB UDO is the recognised successor to 5.25-inch MO (Magneto Optical) storage and is available in both Rewritable and true Write Once media formats. UDO has been designed specifically for ILM and archive environments to provide secure, long-term storage for valuable business information.

Yes, in fact UDO is the only blue laser professional optical technology to receive overwhelming industry support. With support from more than 35 independent software vendors (ISVs) and endorsements from industry leaders such as HP, IBM and Verbatim (Mitsubishi), UDO has quickly established itself as an industry standard.

Within the first few months of the release of UDO, Plasmon alone shipped more than 1 Petabyte of UDO storage capacity to hundreds of organisations and government agencies worldwide. UDO has become a key part of the ILM and archival storage strategy of some of the world`s best known companies across a wide range of industries including medical imaging, banking, financial services, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, design, broadcast, security and telecommunications.

Many government and industry regulations require that data be stored on a media format that prevents alteration in order to ensure record authenticity. Since data recorded on UDO true Write Once media cannot be changed, it provides a standard of authenticity and audit trail management that meets or exceeds regulation requirements and simply cannot be matched by rewritable disk and tape products using Write Once emulation.

With a first generation 30GB capacity, UDO is being used in desktop drive configurations for SME environments and in high capacity automated libraries for enterprise requirements. Plasmon`s G-Series libraries "Powered by UDO" range from capacities just under 1TB to over 19TB in a single footprint. UDO drives and libraries offer the scalability and robust duty cycles demanded by today`s data storage intensive applications.

One of the greatest strengths of professional optical storage has always been the longevity of the media. UDO uses a non-magnetic "Phase Change" recording technology that has a data life in excess of 50 years. Unlike tape, it`s a non-contact media with extremely wide tolerances for environmental storage conditions. The media stability of UDO virtually eliminates media maintenance and dramatically reduces the need for the frequent migration of data to new media, resulting in major savings in cost and administration.

The seek and read/write performance of UDO is far higher than many realise and has been optimised specifically for archive requirements. 35 millisecond seek times provide very fast random access to data. Maximum sustained read and write speeds are 8MBps and 4MBps respectively and with load times of a few seconds, access to any file in an automated archive can be achieved in less than 10 seconds. This level of performance is dramatically better than tape and is well within the access tolerances of most archive environments.

30GB UDO is the first generation of blue laser optical technology. With development already under way for backward compatible 60GB and 120GB formats, UDO has a well-defined roadmap for the future. UDO has received both Ecma and ISO certification based on a standard 5.25-inch media format originally developed more than 15 years ago. When storing data for years or decades, it is vitally important to use technology that has a long-term vision of continuity and compatibility.

Not only will future UDO technology be backward compatible with earlier generations of the technology, but with the Plasmon G-Series Jukeboxes, we can offer our current Magneto Optical users a full return on investment. This is achieved by the mixed media functionality in the G-Series jukeboxes, which will allow users to use both MO as well as UDO media in a single footprint.

A common misconception about optical storage is the actual cost of an archive. Often, comparisons are drawn between the raw media cost per GB, but this does not tell the full story. A more appropriate metric is to look at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the entire archive environment over years of operation. When taking into account initial acquisition, maintenance and operating costs, a UDO archive is extremely competitive with magnetic disk and tape-based solutions.

UDO continues to deliver all the strengths that have made optical storage so successful in the past such as authenticity and data longevity, but with much higher capacity and greatly reduced costs. A growing number of organisations developing ILM and archival strategies are selecting UDO for their long-term, archival storage requirements. The momentum for UDO archival storage is no real surprise. The facts speak for themselves.

For more information on Plasmon Data Solutions and UDO Technology, contact Datashuttle on (011) 466-2331 or visit www.datashuttle.co.za.