Storage firm Spectra Logic has introduced a new verification tool that it says will actively and automatically check the media and data stored on tape to ensure it can be retrieved by users.
BlueScale Data Integrity Verification is offered free of charge and works across Spectra’s T-Series range of tape libraries. It is available as part of BlueScale 11.3, the company’s software management platform.
The platform offers three levels of automated validation. PreScan, which checks newly imported tapes to make sure they are ready to use, compatible with existing systems and not write-protected. It then goes through the QuickScan process, which checks the backup and archive data was successfully written to tape. Finally a PostScan verifies the physical tape cartridge and the integrity of all of the data stored up it.
Rapid or gradual data degradation can be tracked by the QuickScan and PostScan in the library’s flash memory SQL database. Any issues can be reported to the user.
"This system can verify that the data can be read, which is obviously good to do before the original primary data is deleted," Molly Rector, VP of product management and worldwide marketing at Spectra Logic, told CBR. "The PostScan should check data every six to 12 months and provide the user with the trust that they’ll be able to recover their data. If there are any issues the user can be alerted and move the data to another device."
Degradation over time and unreliability are two of the main complaints about tape backup and storage, alongside its slow recovery speeds. However Rector believes that Spectra’s recent growth shows there is still a market out there for tape storage.
Spectra Logic is privately-held so does not release detailed financial results, but the company recently announced impressive growth figures. Revenue across the company increased 34% during the first half of FY 2011, while revenue from Spectra’s enterprise tape library division grew 60%.
Spectra’s Molly Rector says the firm is seeing a, "shift in usage from offsite backup to active applications, with tape becoming a second layer of storage. With data growing faster than budgets it’s getting less and less difficult to justify investment in tape."
Rector added that the big companies have not abandoned tape altogether. "NetApp and IBM are heading back to tape. IBM is our toughest competition but we’re two years ahead of them in development. EMC has gone down the ‘tape is dying’ route and I’d expect them to remain there," Rector told CBR.
Despite Rector’s claim that NetApp hasn’t abandoned tape, Andreas König, NetApp’s SVP and general manager, EMEA suggested something different when we spoke to him late in 2010. "You’re the first to ask about tape in a long time. I haven’t heard many customers talk about it lately. A lot only keep it for legal reasons, not backup anymore," he told CBR. "We said a while ago that tape will be a niche, and that’s what’s happening. If you look at the numbers – IBM’s tape business is tanking. I think that’s a true sign that it’s running out as a medium. It’s no longer true that it’s cheaper. It will survive longer than many think but in niche markets."
