Tandberg To Ship 1U Autoloader With Half-Height LTO-1
The new StorageLoader LTO-1, which Tandberg plans to release to the channel next week, offers a maximum capacity of 800 Gbytes native, or 1.6 Tbytes compressed, in a 1U rack-mount footprint, said Ken Cruden, vice president and general manager for the Poway, Calif.-based vendor. The native data transfer rate is 16 Mbytes per second.
Tandberg is targeting the StorageLoader LTO-1 at small businesses that may be using AIT or DAT tape formats but may be interested in LTO technology, according to Cruden.
"Customers like LTO but feel it's too expensive," he said. "That's what caused us to come out with our half-height LTO-1 drive."
Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at Chi, a Cleveland-based solution provider, said Tandberg has been doing a great job with autoloaders. The market is definitely ready for such a high-density tape autoloader like the new StorageLoader LTO-1, but it won't go only to small businesses, he noted.
"This creeps into the lower end of the midmarket," Knieriemen said. "A lot depends on users' configurations."
Though many 1U or 2U autoloaders use a revolving carousel to load tape cartridges, the StorageLoader LTO-1 uses two removable, four-tape magazines for simplicity, Cruden said. It also includes a bar-code reader for cataloging cartridges.
Designed with serviceability in mind, the autoloader features field-replaceable power supplies, fans, drives and air filters, Cruden said. It also can be upgraded with other half-height LTO tape drives, including Tandberg's half-height LTO-2 drive, introduced a year ago, and its upcoming half-height LTO-3 drive, expected to be released in a year, he said.
The list price for the StorageLoader LTO-1 is less than $3,000, and its street price is expected to be as low as $2,300, Cruden said.