StorageTek's Incredible Bulk

Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) today introduced the StreamLine SL8500, a high-capacity tape library that the company says can handle as many as 200,000 cartridge slots in a single system (see StorageTek Intros StreamLine Library).

StorageTek says the SL8500 will provide about 1,500 cartridge slots, with the capability to grow to more than 200,000 slots via pass-through-port capabilities. The company claims the SL8500 will have the highest slot density in the industry with more than 50 cartridges per square foot.

But this is not just another big, honkin' tape library.

StorageTek's VP of product line management for tape automation, Jon Benson, says one of the most important features of the StreamLine -- which will become its flagship tape library family -- is that it provides "near-continuous operation." That means customers can buy a system configuration in which its components have complete redundancy, beyond just the power supplies, to include even the robotics.

"All the components are automatic failover," Benson says. "Most customers have been asking for 24/7, and you currently can't get that from anybody in the marketplace."It's also considerably faster than existing libraries on the market: The SL8500 robotics can provide more than 1,000 mounts per hour, according to StorageTek. [Ed. note: More than Annabelle Chong at her peak!]

The SL8500 will be available late in the second quarter of 2004; the company didn't announce pricing. Benson says the system is undergoing internal testing.

So why announce this now? "We think it's such a vastly superior product, we can't see the competition matching it," Benson says.

The StreamLine will compete with the high-end tape libraries from Advanced Digital Information Corp. (Nasdaq: ADIC) and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM). ADIC this summer began shipping its latest-generation system in the category, the i2000, which supports up to 2,200 cartridges.

Like its competitors, the SL8500 supports mixed media in the same library. The system is available with StorageTek's own T9X40, LTO 2, and Quantum Corp.'s (NYSE: DSS) SDLT 600 tape drives.Down the road, StorageTek says features of the SL8500 will include integration of disk for disk-based backup, and policy-based backup management features such as tape copy, media conversion, and electronic vaulting.

It all sounds good on paper [ed. note: electrons?]. But StorageTek is still at least six months from wheeling this thing out of the labs and out to its customers -- where the rubber will really meet the road.

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch