Advanced Digital Information Corp. hopes to help simplify the network storage process, at least as it relates to tape libraries. This week, the company will unveil its Scalar 100 tape library, which supports different types of tape drives and multiple storage network architectures at a midrange price. By July, the company also plans to bundle storage-management software, called CentraVision, with the product, to help with the administration of users' entire storage networks, including media such as Fibre Channel disk-drive systems and tape libraries.

The Scalar 100, priced at $26,000, can back up and recover as much as 2.4 terabytes of data for $26,000. Customers can also purchase a single-drive, 30-cartridge version of the device with 1.2 terabytes of capacity for less than $20,000. The library will work with existing SCSI storage interfaces as a node on a network attached storage framework or as a component on a storage area network.

The first version of the library, which supports DLT tape drives, ships next month. DLT is the de facto standard tape drive for the midrange space; the technology is owned by Quantum Corp. Advanced Digital Information will also offer LTO-based Scalar 100 libraries through an outsourcing relationship with IBM; LTO is a competing tape-drive standard from Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Seagate. IBM plans to ship its version of the Scalar 100 during the first half of this year.

Fara Yale, a senior analyst with Dataquest, says the Scalar 100 is the kind of product that will meet customers' needs for simplifying storage architectures. Says Yale: "They are looking for automated tape systems that don't tie them in to a single tape technology."