In either case, in order to be widely recognized as an enterprise-class solution, Spectra Logic has to meet enterprise-class requirements, which the company's T-Finity solution already does:
* Reliability -- In multi PB solutions, reliability is a must. Spectra offers built in 99.99% reliability, which is typically unheard of for a tape library, but necessary for large-scale tape libraries. It accomplishes this through no single point of failure design points, such as dual robotics controllers.
* Integrity -- Closely related to reliability of components and part of what delivers four nines availability is what Spectra Logic calls lifecycle management for critical components including the tape library itself (including robotics), tape drives and tape media; Spectra Logic offers drive lifecycle management (DLM), library lifecycle management (LLM) and media lifecycle management (MLM). The purpose of these capabilities is to reduce risk with features such as pro-active notification of upcoming service events and alerting when to replace a tape before it poses a risk to data.
* Environmental -- From footprint to power consumption, Spectra Logic's modern design has an advantage as compared to older competitive tape library architectures that were designed when floor space and green computing were not the critical issues they are today.
* Manageability -- Spectra Logic offers a unified management suite that simplifies the administration of large tape libraries (essential to make sure that administration is neither labor intensive nor requires hard-to-find and expensive special skills that would drive up the library's TCO). The suite includes not only a single, well-proven management interface, but also encryption key management, library virtualization, and power monitoring capabilities.
In T-Finity, Spectra Logic has put together a high-end enterprise-class tape library that pays attention to the details that are necessary for delivering true enterprise-class experience. That required not only solid engineering and manufacturing capabilities, but also a clear understanding of what IT buyers expect -- as well as what they truly need -- in an enterprise-class solution.
But it does no good to deliver a quality product if there is no market for it. And Spectra Logic has clearly identified its target markets in large IT and Federal backup environments. That segment of active archiving where bulk storage of data is necessary and the business user has to be able to access the data "online," and where instantaneous response time is an unnecessary and expensive luxury.
Overall, Spectra Logic seems positioned to prove that you don't have to be a huge vendor to successfully attack a high-end enterprise-class market and thus acts as a counterpoint to conventional wisdom. What the company has accomplished in T-Finity is nothing that their major competitor in this space could not have done, but that is where doing things right rewards the innovator and penalizes the company that refuses or is unable to change.
