Reality Check On New Tape Format - DLT tape drives - Buyers Guide

Computer Technology Review, Sept, 1999 by Mark Brownstein

By that definition, it would seem that the LTO drives, both Ultrium and Accelis, could be considered first generation, since there were no previous LTO drives, and certainly none created through the collaboration of IBM, Seagate, HP, and Fujitsu. By the same definition, SuperDLT would not be first generation because it builds on previous DLT technology. Right? Wrong.

The current, working definition, seems to be "first generation is what we're using and not what the competition is using." Thus, the Ultrium could not be considered first generation because it makes substantial use of technology developed by IBM for its 3480 drives (according to Quantum). Further, according to Quantum, the SuperDLT drive could be considered first generation because it's a major redesign of the DLT drive.

There are some significant differences between DLT and SuperDLT. These include a simplified, redesigned tape path and tape loading mechanism, new head technologies, and an optical servoing mechanism for precisely positioning the tape heads.

Wrapping Up

What's first generation? What's not? Does it really matter?

Will the newly shipping 8mm drives eat into DLT? Will LTO drives, or, for that matter SuperDLT and DLT1 drives eat into the DLT market share? At the low end, will the Travan 20 or Quarter Inch Ccommittee (QIC) drives eat into the desktop workstation market? Will DDS4, with increased capacity and performance that can finally challenge the bottom of the high end market, eat into the server space?

What ultimately matters is the ability to restore data. A company's decision will be based on many factors: storage capacity, compatibility with prior technologies, performance, robustness, available automation options (if needed), price, and, perhaps most important, the ability to restore from the media onto the drive that wrote the data, as well as any other "compatible" drive, in case of a disaster--another factor that deserves increasing attention of both the drive and its manufacturer.

The need for storage is evolving and continually increasing. In many enterprises, backup is evolving into an activity that is done remotely or on serverless systems. Older technologies will continue to be displaced by newer, more capable ones.

There is significant growth potential for all tape technologies. The question may not be as much whether or not any company can eat into DLT market share--even with a significant drop in DLT's piece of the market, the growth of the tape market may still result in continued growth in DLT unit sales.

As seen from the battlefield, there appears to be the potential for shared victory by most major combatants. Although each may wind up sharing a market because the market continues to grow, most tape formats will see increased overall sales, even if market share remains constant or declines for some, and grows for others.