The Hindu Business Line : Yielding no ground

WITH disk-based solutions gaining prominence, is the tape on its way out?Surprisingly, the answer isn't a clear yes. Rather, players like Quantum Corporation see the tape holding its own despite advances in data storage technologies.Quantum actually makes a case for the tape being cheaper, offering more capacity, and lasting longer. Read on for this side of the argument.

"The need for tape systems is exploding in the enterprise market," says Mike Sparkes, product marketing manager for Asia-Pacific, Quantum, "as companies look to archive the huge amount of data that's being generated."

Enterprises are moving towards implementing long-term storage solutions and archiving of their data, for which tape has emerged as a preferred medium, he says.

However, for short-term storage solutions, companies prefer disks. A bunch of disks, with the storage software built into it is known as filers. Tape and disks are important components of the secondary storage solutions. Tape, by virtue of "its low costs, high capacity and safety aspects," has gained more prominence over compact discs, which were considered for storing data earlier, he says.

Here's Sunny John, country manager of Quantum in India, with the statistics: "Capacity-wise, a tape can store some 600,000 MB of data, which is around 1,000 times higher than a CD that can hold some 650 to 700 MB of data.

It is more cost-effective to store data on a computer tape, which costs between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000."

"Even if we consider the cost of 1000 CDs, the tape is much cheaper and more reliable than a CD," he says. Moreover, a tape is easy to handle and has a long shelf life of 20-30 years as compared to a CD whose life may be a year or two.

However, it may take some more time for the disk to gain a wider acceptance in India, he adds. "With disaster recovery gaining prominence, the tape has emerged as the de facto standard for secondary storage solutions," says Sparkes.

The disk faces threats of virus attacks or disk crashes but not so the tape, he says. The tape is well positioned for the future because there's still a lot of technology that can be packed into it, he says.

Quantum cites the experience of a client who went in for the company's solution.Spice Telecom, a cellular operator in the Karnataka Circle with over two lakh subscribers, has implemented a Quantum solution, the M1500 automated tape library, for its data back-up.

Earlier, a full back-up took around 12-14 days every time. Moreover, keeping track of the tapes, one set of which was kept off-site for disaster recovery purposes, was a cumbersome process.

"Sometimes, when one is called to restore a particular file from an old backup, it could take more than 24 hours to just retrieve the file," says Raghunath, senior manager, IT, Spice Telecom.

"We cannot afford a database downtime of 14-16 days," he says.

The Quantum M1500 automated solution, which requires minimum human intervention, has ensured negligible room for error in backups and restorations.

Today, a full backup takes only nine hours, says Baskaran R, assistant manager, systems, Spice Telecom. As part of its product roadmap, Quantum is focusing on driving down the cost per gigabyte of its network-attached storage (NAS) products.

It aims to introduce a digital linear tape (DLT)-based library capable of handling 10 terabyte cartridges by 2009, Sparkes says.

The new DLT tape roadmap extends Quantum's two tape drive product lines, the new DLT-S (earlier SDLT) and the DLT-V (earlier DLT VS).

The company plans to double DLT performance and capacity every 18-24 months over the next decade, with speeds to match all network capabilities.

"We are also looking to deliver one terabyte for $1000 in a cartridge so that small and medium enterprises can afford it," Spark says.

According to IDC, the Asia-Pacific market for standalone tape disc market is around $52 million, while the Indian market is growing at 8 per cent. Quantum sees major growth from segments such as software development, telecom, manufacturing and banking and finance.

It sees keen demand for archiving solutions as part of the stringent regulatory norms and compliance issues companies face, because of which companies will also be forced to store their data.

Picture by S. Subramanium

vishwa@thehindu.co.in

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