Quantum Digs Into Disk Backup

Quantum Corp. (NYSE: DSS) is expanding its foray into the world of disk, with plans to announce new products in and enhancements to its DX backup family at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas tomorrow.

While the original DX30 -- which has been shipping since last October -- is aimed at smaller enterprises in need of more backup capacity, the enhanced model, as well as the new DX100, can scale to address the needs of large enterprises and data centers running mission-critical databases, the company says (see Quantum Slips Disks Into Backup and Quantum Ships Disk Backup).

Quantums DX family consists of disk backup technology that emulates tape. Companies can use the same software they use for tape libraries to hook up to the DX disk drives. But while the disks may look like tape, they offer backup that is eight times faster than a typical tape-based system. In addition, disk also offers a much faster and more effective way of restoring data.

"The backup software simply sees the backup as a tape library," says David Kenyon, a product line manager at Quantum. This gives Quantum an edge over some of its competitors which require customers to buy proprietary software when they switch to disk, he says.

And Quantum will need every edge it can get. Although this space is still embryonic, there’s an abundance of companies eager for a chunk of the action -- EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), and Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) are only some of players aiming for a piece of the pie (see Disk Backup 101).Still, observers seem to think that Quantum is heading in the right direction. "They’re getting some really good traction with their customer base," says Enterprise Storage Group Inc. analyst Steve Kenniston. "Quantum is doing an excellent job of getting their message out... We’re pretty impressed with what they’ve done."

And while some observers have questioned whether a traditional tape vendor will ever get much traction in the disk market, Quantum's Kenyon says he’s not worried. “I think we’re very well-positioned from a technology standpoint,” he says. “Disk and tape do complement each other... Customers appreciate that they can come to us for both."

To enhance the capacity of its existing DX30 backup system, Quantum has added expansion arrays, allowing customers to gradually increase their capacity as their data requirements grow. By adding up to two optimized expansion arrays, customers can scale the DX30 from 3.4 Tbytes to 12.4 Tbytes. As customers add more arrays, it simply looks to the backup software as though the tape library is growing, according to Kenyon. Even if the arrays are not in the same spot, they are all managed together as one big tape library.

“The notion of being able to scale and add additional arrays is key,” says Robert Amatruda, an analyst with IDC.

Customers will have the opportunity to buy the optimized DX30 when it becomes available in June, along with additional expansion arrays that can be purchased separately. It has a starting list price of about $55,000, or $14.40 per raw gigabyte, for 3.8 Tbytes of raw capacity.The new DX100, which will be available near the end of the third quarter this year, is made up of a controller box in a six-foot rack with up to eight ATA arrays, allowing for initial capacity from 10 Tbytes to 50 Tbytes. The box will ship with hardware features like redundant, hot-swap fans, power supplies, dual redundant Fibre Channel ports, and RAID protection. It is designed to handle the backup and restore requirements of large distributed data centers running mission-critical database, CRM, and ERP applications, Quantum says.

Pricing hasn’t been set yet for the DX100, but Kenyon says he expects the price per gigabyte to be between $10 and $12. The box will start beta-testing in about two months.

Because the DX100 is managed like a tape library, Quantum says, customers can tailor disk volumes to a set number of tape cartridges, allowing benefits like multiplexing simultaneous backup jobs and sharing of backup from the box to multiple tape devices.

In addition to the new DX100 and the enhanced DX30, Quantum will also be announcing a new compression engine technology tomorrow. By compressing the data going into the DX30 or DX100, the hardware-based HBA approximately doubles the available capacity of each box, Quantum claims. The engine also provides more I/O offload from the enhanced backup controller for performance benefits. One or more compression boards can be added to existing or future DX products to enhance capacity.

Kenyon says that the enhancements are being tested, and that the company already has some customers lined up. Quantum has about 100 customers for its existing DX30, which has been shipping for about a quarter, and Kenyon says that about 70 percent of them have indicated that they need more capacity.— Eugénie Larson, Reporter, Byte and Switch