ADIC Brings Capacity-On-Demand, Logical Partitioning To New Tape Library

The company's Scalar i2000 library can scale to 12 LTO or DLT tape drives, or up to 24 AIT tape drives, and up to a maximum of 400 tape cartridges in a single 19-inch rack footprint, said Matt Chew, ADIC's product manager. Up to three additional modules can be connected to the first, for a total of up to 48 tape drives and 1,674 LTO tape cartridges, all using a single robotic system.

The Scalar i2000 features a number of management functions coming as a result of ADIC's new iPlatform Architecture. Under iPlatform, tape drives of different technologies can be mixed as needed within the Scalar i2000. The library can be partitioned into up to 16 logical libraries without the addition of an external control box, allowing cost-effective backup consolidation, said Chew.

IPlatform also allows policy-based alerts, enabling administrators to proactively handle problems such as a component degradation, which can affect the library's operation. IPlatform can also gather information locally or remotely on written and read data, tape capacity and media history as an aid to capacity planning, Chew said.

ADIC gets nearly all of its revenue from sales through the channel, and the i2000 will be no exception, said Steve Whitner, director of strategic marketing at ADIC. "All upgrades to the library belong to the reseller," he said.

The list price of the i2000 starts at about $83,000 for a base configuration of two LTO tape drives and space for 200 tape cartridges. That price includes installation and one year of on-site services, said Whitner. The services can be provided by either ADIC or the solution provider, he said.

Kevin Reith, manager of strategic technology at Info Systems, a Wilmington, Del.-based solution provider with a storage specialty, welcomes tape library technology improvements.

"There haven't been a lot of advancements in tape technology that have been earth-shattering," Reith said. "Advancements are mainly in terms of supporting some new tape, or a few more Gbytes in capacity. But these new libraries can be used as near-line storage and have virtualization capabilities, both features which have been in the mainframe world but which are new to open systems. They are both big moves."

The Scalar i2000 libraries are aimed at enterprise clients with multiple sites, said Reith. "But that makes it challenging for channel partners," he said. "Most enterprise clients are skewed to work direct with manufacturers."