Overland Scales Down Tape Arrays

The San Diego-based disk and tape array vendor&'s new library series, code-named Dreadnaught, will come in 2U, 4U and 8U form factors, and will feature twice the density of the company&'s current NEO line, said Overland President and CEO Christopher Calisi.

The NEO offering can fit up to 12 Tbytes of raw capacity into a 5U space.

Unlike the NEO line, the Dreadnaught libraries will not have hot-swap and failover capabilities. They also will not have the scalability of the NEO, Calisi said.

“It&'s for customers who are more price-sensitive,” he said.

Pricing information was not yet available.

When CRN asked Calisi whether Overland is forging a new OEM relationship with Dell for the Dreadnaught line, he declined to comment about OEM discussions Overland may be having, saying premature disclosures could hurt prospective OEM relationships.

Overland has previously disclosed OEM relationships with Hewlett-Packard and another tier-one vendor that it declines to name. Calisi said any new relationship will not affect the company&'s channel. “We&'ve been selling to HP for many years with no conflict,” he said. “Actually, we wish there was a little more conflict. The tension would indicate that we were maximizing both our channels.”

Bob Abraham, president of Freeman Reports, an Ojai, Calif.-based storage analyst firm, said the market is ready for a low-cost tape library using LTO (linear tape open) tape drives. “With low-cost LTO, the entry-level arena will be very, very busy,” he said. “Customers are willing to give up some capability for cost.”

With its simple feature set, the new Dreadnaught library seems perfect for the channel, said John Thome, vice president of Chi, an Overland solution provider based in Cleveland. The market could use a good, low-cost tape library, and Overland is known for its quality products, Thome said.