Quantum, ADIC Show Enterprise Backup Solutions

Quantum on Monday aimed at the enterprise with its highest-performance tape library, the new PX720, code-named Mako.

Advanced Digital Information Corp. (ADIC), on the other hand, last week introduced an integrated disk and tape backup solution based on its latest tape array, which was unveiled this past July.

Quantum's Mako fits up to 20 SDLT or LTO-2 tape drives and up to 732 slots into a 19-inch frame, said Larry Orecklin, president of the Storage Solutions Group at Quantum, San Jose, Calif.

It can be connected to the host or hosts via SCSI, Gigabit Ethernet, or bridged or switched Fibre Channel, and includes multiple redundant fans and non-disruptive power capabilities, Orecklin said.

Mako also offers multiple on-demand growth capabilities, Orecklin said. The drives come sold in clusters of one to four drives, each with its own cooling system, and up to five clusters can be mounted in Mako. Also, with Quantum's CrossLink Mechanism, up to five Makos with a maximum capacity of 100 drives and 3,660 cartridges can be connected into a single library, he said.

Mako can be ordered starting this week, and shipments are expected to begin in late 2003 or early 2004, Orecklin said.

Pricing starts at less than $93,000 for two drives and 190 slots. However, the company is simplifying the pricing by including redundant components, installation, one-year on-site warranty and service, management and diagnostics all in a single price, Orecklin said.

Mako is available via Quantum's channel partners, which can be certified to perform services related to the array or can resell Quantum's services, Orecklin said.

ADIC's Pathlight VX integrated disk-to-tape backup solution is the first time that company has brought its tape library, disk-based SAN appliance and data management software into a single solution, said Bryce Hern, executive director of storage networking at the Redmond, Wash.-based vendor.

The Pathlight VX allows from 10 Tbytes to 40 Tbytes of data to be backed up at up to 1 Tbyte per hour to Serial ATA-based hard drives protected by RAID 5, Hern said.

The disk-based storage appliance presents itself to the host as a tape library, Hern said. However, because the data is being backed up to disk, it can be accessed or restored later at disk speed. Furthermore, the data is available to any application, and access is not dependent on a specific device, he said.

The disk appliance has an embedded data mover to allow high-speed backup to tape, which means that backups to tape can be made at any time during the day, Hern said.

The appliance can be partitioned into configurations as small as one hard drive and one tape library to up to 510 virtual drives and up to six virtual libraries, Hern said. "For example, someone may want to configure a small virtual drive for backing up an NT server and a big virtual drive for backing up an Oracle database," he said.

The appliance can be connected to a dedicated library or to a single library partition, or several units can be linked to a single library, he said.

The Pathlight VX is expected to ship this month. Pricing has yet to be determined.

About 55 percent of ADIC's storage products are sold with the ADIC brand name, and nearly all of the branded products go through the channel, Hern said.