Spectra Logic Corp. seems to be the exception to the rule here. This private company based in Boulder, Colo., has been quietly and profitably making tape libraries for almost 30 years. While they have entered into the disk market, they continue to announce new libraries, and the changes are more than incremental. They are innovative, with changes to the way tapes are stored in the library and the way the library is managed.
Tape backup software vendors are guilty, too. Many now focus more on what they do to work with disk systems than on what they are doing to improve the tape experience. Even some VTL solutions have lost the move to tape capability, or their methods for doing so are so cumbersome that you would rather not bother. Most now require that you use the backup server to move data to tape, which has its pros and cons and is worth discussing in another entry.
The irony in all this is that in the data center -- and not just the large ones -- tape is not going away. It is still used and counted on in a big way. If someone could nail the integration among tape libraries, backup software, and disk they could really have something. Of course, they would also have to tell someone about it. Any new innovation in tape is going to risk being drowned out by me and all the other guys hyping disk.
George Crump is founder of Storage Switzerland , which provides strategic consulting and analysis to storage users, suppliers, and integrators. Prior to Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest integrators.
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