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Tape drives based on Sony's latest AIT-3 (Advanced Intelligent Tape) format are now shipping.
These drives support the same 100Gb native capacity as rival Ultrium's LTO products, which is a little less than the 110Gb offered by Super DLT, although their performance is similar to both SDLT and LTO.
The AIT-3 drive is a smaller, half-height device. Also available as an external drive (£2,900 ex. VAT), we tested the internal AIT260i model, which included the same fast Ultra160 SCSI interface to enhance performance.
Sony claims a doubling of capacity and throughput compared to its existing AIT-2 drives. As with all tape drives, however, the backup software and disk hardware used will have an impact on what's possible.
It's also rare for the maximum quoted compression ratio to be achieved; Sony quotes 2.6:1, compared with 2:1 from the competition.
We tested the AIT260i on a server with a single 15,000rpm Ultra160 SCSI disk fitted, copying a mix of compressed and incompressible data files.
The software used was Veritas Backup Exec 8.5, a trial copy of which is included with the AIT260i. Average throughput was just over 11Mbps, which is roughly on a par with the results we got when we tested LTO and SDLT drives last year.
This would enable around 40Gb of data to be backed up per hour on a typical small-business server.
The cartridges used by the AIT260i are competitively priced at around £72 (ex VAT) and feature a Memory-In-Cassette chip, although few applications, as yet, use this option.
Price: £2,700 (ex. VAT)
Specifications:
Capacity: 100Gb per tape (native), 260Gb (compressed)
Maximum transfer rate: 12Mbps (native), 31Mbps (compressed)
Interface: Ultra 160 SCSI (single-ended and LVD)
Reliability: MTBF (mean time between failures) 400,000 hours.
Contact: Sony 01932 816 660
www.sony-cp.com
See also:
All Back-up Storage
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