Sony's storage 'paradigm shift' to roll out in Q2
Sony's storage 'paradigm shift' to roll out in Q2
This April Sony plans to release new data storage tape technology aimed atthe enterprise market with vastly increased capacities and throughputspeeds. Called S-AIT (for Super AIT), the new technology will feature mediawith native capacities of 500GB and drives that can transfer data at 30MBper second. The format represents a "paradigm shift in tape technology",said Rhys Fagan, Sony Australia's product manager - magnetic storage.He said the S-AIT drives will feature existing AIT recording technology andhelical scan tape transports, but will use a larger 1/2 inch tape and beavailable with SCSI or fibre channel interfaces. While the tape cartridge issimilar in size to the rival DLT and S-DLT formats, its storage capacity ismuch greater.
On the marketing front, Sony is pitching the format at higher-end enterprisecustomers who may be considering the relatively recent LTO (Linear TapeOpen) format. "It's Sony's answer to LTO", he said. The LTO format issupported by firms as HP, IBM and Seagate, but not Sony.LTO is a relatively new format which has gained momentum in the market as alogical progression to the long-standing DLT format, particularly asenterprise users' storage needs grow.Sony's alternative for these enterprise users will get a boost if the newS-AIT drives are compatible with existing S-DLT and DLT libraries. Mr Fagansaid that sample S-AIT drives were currently being tested by OEM partners intheir respective tape library systems, but was unable to say at this stagewhich model libraries could use Sony's new format.Ironically, while the S-AIT drives are theoretically compatible withexisting DLT and S-DLT libraries, the S-AIT drives will not be compatiblewith existing AIT libraries due to the smaller size drives (AIT uses 8mmtape transports).
Meanwhile, Sony will continue to develop and promote the AIT format as anupgrade path for the multitude of users of the 4mm DDS technology and moveaway from any further upgrades to DDS technology.
DDS is now at the DDS-4 stage, offering 20GB of storage per cassette innative form. However, this May DDS-5 will be released into what is a largeinstalled base of DDS users.
The next - and most likely final - upgrade for the DDS format will offer35GB per tape (native), but Mr Fagan said "Sony is officially promotingAIT-1, not DDS-5".
Even though Sony was one of the proponents of the original DDS tapetransport (originally developed in 1985 for digital audio tape recorders),Mr Fagan said the recording technology "is reaching its limits". He admittedthere "are lot of pluses" for DDS technology, such as the backwardscompatibility for previous versions, track record as a reliable format andits large installed base. "But Sony believes it's time (for users) to go toa product with a longer life-cycle, such as AIT-1."
The entry-level AIT-1 drive offers 35GB per tape in native form (the same asDDS-5) and as needs grow, users can progress up to AIT-3, which offers 100GBper tape (native). Later this year or early next year, Sony plans to releaseAIT-4 which will feature 200GB per tape (native) and 24MB/s transfer rate.Similarly, Sony is offering IDE interface AIT-1 packages for servers, withstand-alone versions featuring i.Link or USB interfaces designed for laptopsor solo workstations, to be released later this year.
"So with AIT, we're going up and down the scale in terms of potentialend-users," he said.
Mr Fagan said that although Australia has one of the lowest connect rates inthe world (referring to the number of servers which are sold without abackup or archiving system in place), the Australian operation of Sony hadachieved good penetration. "On a per capita basis, we sell more (Sony) tapedrives than anywhere else in the world," he added.
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