ATL Products Inc, the tape library division of Quantum Corp, will offers its five product lines on both its parentÆs SuperDLT technology and the rival LTO tape format developed by IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and Seagate Technologies Inc. The decision represents a desire by the company to hedge its bets on the next generation in tape storage technology, where the hitherto dominant DLTÆs new version will come under threat from the muscle and marketing power of LTOÆs combined progenitors.
ATL COO Neal Waddington said the products (L200, L500, P1000, P7100 and P3000) will be available late in the first quarter of next year. He does not expect a price differential between the SuperDLT- and LTO-based versions. The deal means that Irvine, California-based ATL is no longer wrangling over the size of its piece of the mid-range storage tape pie, but rather focusing on enlarging the pie itself. Both technologies are expected to give storage capacities of around 100 Gigabytes, with transfer speeds of 10 Megabytes a second.
ATL follows a similar strategy of ‘if you canÆt beat them, join them’ in its mid-range remote network storage product LANvault, which it released yesterday in Paris. LANvault embeds backup technology from both Veritas Software and Computer Associates International Inc, the two firms that hold 80% of the remote storage market. The ATL software includes additional features to the Veritas Backup Exec and CAÆs ARCserve software, which enables administrators to control the remote siteÆs operating system and server and download or update patches to the site.
LANvault is aimed at companies who have multiple offices in disparate locations but who want to store the information locally. The software set will include a backup appliance, a console that enables the administrator to track performance and a customer service web portal, through which the administrator can register, configure and upgrade usersÆ operating systems or software. ATL claims that LANvault can be installed straight from the box in less than an hour.
