Tape technology council roundtable discussion - TapeCouncil.org: promoting tape technologies for data storage

Computer Technology Review, July, 2003

Editor's Note: One of the most hotly-contested questions in the world of mass storage is the present and future of tape technology. In January, CTR editor-in-chief Mark Ferelli was asked by the Tape Technology Council to moderate probably the most extensive and comprehensive roundtable on tape's present and future. Highlights follow.

Mark Ferelli: Each year, tape is the data storage standard for backup of data. From IBM's introduction of the drive subsystem to StorageTek's entry of tape libraries, tape has provided us with data storage and retrieval options. Let's take a look at tape storage and its uses. What are the applications for tape storage and where are these applications going to take tape years from now?

Jeff Laughlin: Backup is still a primary use of tape. With the event of 9/11, disaster recovery and business continuity is important. Tape is the foundation of the system that ensures the storing and restoring of data.

Jim Ellis: Streaming data and geophysical real-time acquisition are applications that continue to become more mainstream. Tape is used to capture terabytes of data for later use and repurposing.

Phil Ritti: Users look at the advantages of cost-per-gigabytes that tape offers. Efficient use of volumetric storage density, remove-ability, and off-site storage makes tape ideal for data protection.

Jeff Ash: Archiving is another use of tape that allows corporate data to be securely stored. Tape has been the preferred archiving medium for years.

Doug Roberts: Tape responds to storing higher capacities of data. Financial data is being archived for at least seven years, while the cost of archiving onto tape remains competitively low.

Mike Lakowicz: Tape is a scalable technology that can be used in a small business to the largest data centers.

Mark Ferelli: No technology stands still. What aspects of hardware, software, media, and systems does tape benefit from?

Mike Lakowicz: There is a growth curve of [hard] disk capacity that tape must continue to exceed. Not only capacity is required but also media reliability Tape has increased bit and track densities and improved the servo to move the tape to stay ahead of the curve. It is projected that tape will continue to exceed disk capacity into the future.

Jeff Ash: The media, drive, and automation companies have done a lot to work together to create systems. Tape subsystems have been engineered to work well with yesterday's and today's computing environments.

Mark Ferelli: There are management issues that accompany the usage of storage solutions. Middleman solutions track meta-data and manage data assets along with other administrative items. How and where does tape storage fit into overall storage management?

Jeff Laughlin: Storage resources prefer to use open system management rather than end-to-end management. Storage provides a way to manage end-to-end system with an open system approach.

Joe Endyke: Data center managers ask how does tape fit; as a tape manufacturer, we may have tape-centric views about the storage hierarchy. Through the discussions of the Tape Technology Council, we may broaden topics to be a strong resource.

Steve Kenniston: SRM such as disk-to-disk-to-tape is a good example where all technologies fit and there is a need to exchange management schemes.

Anne Skamarock: Tape can store hundreds of terabytes of data in an automated environment. Management issues arise when transferring data to/form tertiary systems or legacy systems. Applications are ever-growing that change the management of the storage system and tape is keeping up with the pace.

Mark Ferelli: Storage virtualization has become a talked about issue. What impact does tape have on virtualization?

Brad Johns: Tape virtualization started years back--an integrated front-end with improved tape management and operational features. Disk virtualization now has gained some interest. Terabytes of storage residing on tape is more economical than residing on mainframes in open systems.

Bob Abraham: Open systems are used in a backup mode; for lower cost environments, virtualization is a higher cost today.

Anne Skamarock: Virtualization is a non-entity when using tape virtualization from IBM and Quantum--it is used just as a front-end cache. Virtualization and products such as a switch (mirroring of tape) may reduce the workload of a system since it can read and write. Easy restore capability from archive and from local system can be accomplished efficiently.

Mark Ferelli: How is tape saving money?

Jim Ellis: Tape can be re-used. A same tape that stored 60GB can now store 100GB if the drive used supports 100GB media.

Mike Lakowicz: Tape has evolved from a roadmap that has shown backward compatibility of its media.

Phil Ritti: Data protection of tape versus alternative storage technologies has shown tape to have benefits.

Jeff Laughlin: As examples of tape's cost savings, when comparing the real estate or footprint of tape products or its power consumption, tape comes out several magnitudes more efficient.