Sony Replacing Tape With Optical Disc Archive System

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Prob. out of the price range of the average consumer for some time it sounds like a very interesting backup alternative.

Are the cartridges the write once type; like a stack of Blue ray discs for instance... or can data be erased as well ?
 
The only way i could see this type of system replacing current tape archiving is if it does live up to its claims of being more durable, and faster at reads/writes. Correct me if i am wrong but current tape back-ups can store almost 3 times as much data as one of the "disc cartridges". Which would mean companies would have to double or even possibly triple the amount of back-up media they keep track of. All of that sounds like spending lots of money to me.

But on the other hand if this new media doesn't need to be re-backed-up nearly as often it might pay for itself in the long run.
 
How much data can a company possibly still be holding onto on tape drives?
Redundancy for small storage space can be done through multiple media now. This is a niche product (its on the level of using duck tape to wrap 6 optical discs together and toss into an enclosure that will use them in a "raid"), why not just use single large capacity disk to archive data that my company has around on tape drives still? Storage size to relative cost will be better, physical storage will be less, but efficiency would be lower using single disks.
 
[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]Prob. out of the price range of the average consumer for some time it sounds like a very interesting backup alternative.Are the cartridges the write once type; like a stack of Blue ray discs for instance... or can data be erased as well ?[/citation]

This is for enterprise and larger businesses I imagine, I don't think home users are a concern.
 
let's see... 300GB = 12Bluray single layer disks (12 X 25GB = 300GB)
Double layer = 600GB
Triple layer = 900GB
and the Quad layers 1.2TB

It will probably be a lot cheaper to just buy the individual disks.

Probably a lot faster too.
 
adding that it provides a quicker, more direct access to data than legacy linear data tape systems
Click to expand...

yeah, well, there are better things, like a hard drive based VTL/PTT system. (in other words, a backup program treat the hard drive based system as a tape library, the hard drive based system deduplicates the data and then sends it to a real library.) This provides near immediate restores from hard drive, with off site capabilities like a library, and both much more capable and better performing than this thing.
 
[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]imo optical storage is never good. specially for storage archiving. I bet a HDD array is cheaper then this system.[/citation]

The point of this system is portability of the media unlike a raid setup. What people should be asking is how many writes can be made before there are problems.
 
[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]Anything that involves a spinning disk is a step backwards.[/citation]

Not entirely, there are still uses for disk based storage and don't expect absolutely everyone to dump everything for SSD right away.
 
It's all about Cost to TB and Reliability. Maybe if Sony uses M-Disk media or something like M-Disk in their cartridge, but currently the disks are limited to 4.7GB Capacity and can only write once i.e. no BR for M-Disk. The shelf life of dye based DVD/BR can vary quite a bit, aren't as reliable as tape, and are not a good choice for archiving.

The media cost for 1.5/3.0TB LTO cartridge is ~$50, tape is cheap.
 
Tapes were great because they had few moving parts, you could drop them with no harm done, and if the tape drive went dead well you just swapped out the drive - the tape would still have your data on it. I've got tapes with stuff I recorded 25 years ago, and it's still there.

But as soon as you introduce moving parts into the storage media itself, the chances for data loss due to mechanical failure skyrocket.
 
Tape failure rates are way too high to be considered a viable backup solution today. I believe this is an attempt by sony to create some stickiness in its investment in blu-ray but it still isnt a great solution. Personal and small business users are much better off backing up locally to disk and archiving with a cloud solution. Medium Size and Enterprise have completely diifferent options that comply with regulations and dont put them at risk like tape does.
 
I think I remember reading a while back that someone was developing a disc standard for archival storage that looks like a Cd/DVD/Blu-Ray, but instead of using lasers to merely activate a photo-reactive dye, it actually burned "physical" pits into the medium. I think the way it was being promoted or described, they drew a comparison with Egyptian hieroglyphs, saying: "Look...their stuff withstood the test of time etc.", so why not employ the same methodology to archival storage. A "physical" bump on a disk is going to last a heck of a lot longer than a dye that can fade due to exposure to UV rays, sunlight, and changes in atmospheric conditions.

Wish I knew where/what that article was. Maybe someone here remembers too.
 
As usual this kind of storage will be extremely expensive, slow and, since it's Sony, highly proprietary. Which is a death sentence to any long term storage data.
 
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