ADIC Adds Disk Storage To A Tape Library

Though they might never satisfy all users, IT executives are more focused than ever on recovering data after an outage. The emergence of serial ATA disk storage gives them an affordable option for getting businesses back on their feet in hours, rather than days.

Advanced Digital Information Corp. will dive into ATA support this week with the release of its serial ATA disk drive Pathlight system. The vendor sells midrange tape libraries that used to be the de facto backup and recovery platform. But with its Pathlight VX system, customers can use ATA disk drives at the front end and removable standard tape drives at the back end.

The ATA drives promise much faster write times. But more important, they could dramatically improve recovery times, thanks to features such as random access file location and elimination of the need to find and load different types of media for the whole recovery process. The Pathlight VX will be available by year's end, and a 10-terabyte version should cost around $190,000.

One analyst thinks ADIC, joined by Overland Data, isn't behaving like an ostrich but instead is embracing disk-drive assimilation rather than burying its head in the sand like other tape vendors. "Customers want to move data to ATA disk drives first," says David Hill at Aberdeen Group, "and with service-level agreements in place, IT executives want to recover more quickly."