IBM LTO Ultrium drives share advanced technologies. Advanced multi-track recording capabilities, state-of-the-art magneto-resistive (MR) flat lap heads and a surface control guiding system are designed to worktogether to support extremely high recording densities. The flat lap head is designed to help improve contact between the read/write recording elements and the tape, supporting high-quality recording and readback of your data. The surface control guiding system guides tape across the read/write recording heads, using the surface of the tape and not the tape edges. This feature is intended to help improve the longevity of the tape while minimizing the chance of physical damage to the tape media. Error-correction code (ECC) helps support data integrity and a Statistical Analysis and Reporting System supports preventive diagnostic reporting, helps determine drive and media status and helps improves drive and system availability.
IBM 3590 Extended High-Performance Cartridge Tape continues the IBM focus on tape technology by doubling the length and providing twice the capacity of IBM 3590 High-Performance Cartridge Tape. These tape products increase the data storage capacity of half-inch cartridge tape. In addition, both types of cartridges can reside in the same physical space as IBM 3490 cartridges; they can also coexist in an IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Library 3494.
Cost-effectiveness
Higher capacity cartridges can help reduce the amount of equipment as well as the number of cartridges and tape mounts required in the tape environment. A reduction in the number of cartridges required for backup and restore operations can help lower operational costs throughout the enterprise.
The 3592 J1A tape drive provides up to five times the capacity and over twice the throughput of an IBM 3590 tape drive. The tape drive uses 60GB and 300GB capacity 3592 cartridges that are available in both rewritable and Write Once Read Many (WORM) formats. The 300GB cartridge, which can store up to 900GB at a 3:1 compression ratio, helps reduce the resources required for a lower total cost.
The IBM 7208 Model’s 341 & 342 are a compact tabletop 8 mm cartridge tape drive that provides a native media capacity of 20GB per cartridge and a data transfer rate of 3 MB per second, a substantial improvement over the 7208 Models 012 and 222. With an adaptation of IBM’s IDRC, and depending on the characteristics of the data transferred, up to 40 GB of data can be stored on a cartridge. The data transfer rate can reach up to 6 MB per second for unattended save and restore applications. In addition to reading and writing on new 170 meter 8 mm Mammoth Advanced Metal Evaporated (AME) data cartridges, the new 7208 Model’s 341 & 342 also reads other 7.0 GB, 5.0 GB, or 2.3 GB 8 mm Metal Particle (MP) tape cartridges.
DLT drives
DLT drives, the 7205 Model 550 is designed to be capable of reading tapes written on other systems that uses SDLT320, DLT7000 or DLT8000 tape enabling cost-effective backup, restore and archiving functions. As DLT8000 tape technology nears the end of its evolution, the new SDLT320 standard, through its backward compatibility with older DLT drives, can provide a migration path to greater tape storage capacity at a price point similar to DLT drives. With an industry-standard SCSI Ultra2
LVD interface and small, convenient external packaging, the 7205 Model 550 can be installed quickly. It can be used as a small, desktop save and restore tape drive, or in an IS facility up to 15 meters from the server.
The IBM 7206 Model 336 External DDS Gen 5 (DAT72) Tape Drive is designed to be a cost effective tape drive featuring the popular DDS tape technology. It is designed to offer improved data quality and performance and increased capacity compared to the IBM 7206 Model 220. The 7206 Model 336 supports a migration path to greater tape storage capacity at a price point similar to IBM 7206-220 DDS4 tape drives.
The IBM 7206 Models VX2 and VX3 External VXA-2 or VXA-320 Tape Drives are a higher capacity, cost-effective alternative to DDS/DAT tape technology, offering excellent data quality and performance. The never-ending growth in stored data is causing the size of backup jobs to increase as well. The new VXA tape technology standard provides a migration path to greater tape storage capacity at a price pointsimilar to DDS/DAT drives.
