ADIC Sticks In Some Disk

Latching onto the snowballing trend of disk-to-disk backup, Advanced Digital Information Corp. (Nasdaq: ADIC) plans to offer an integrated ATA-based RAID disk option for its Scalar i2000 tape library by the end of the year.

ADIC CEO Peter van Oppen, in an interview with Byte and Switch, says the company is responding to customer demand for shorter backup and recovery windows, key advantages afforded by a disk-based backup architecture. While the throughput of high-end tape libraries can match that of disk storage, they can require 30 seconds or more to retrieve and load individual tape cartridges.

"It is evident that restoring data is easier from disk," he says. "But we think it's important to have the ability to migrate the data from disk to tape." ADIC was unable to provide pricing or other details for the i2000 disk option.

Vendors that have tried to exploit the move toward putting secondary storage -- such as backup or archive data -- on low-cost disk have included the traditional disk storage systems companies, such as EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) and Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP). Quantum Corp. (NYSE: DSS) and Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) have also introduced products tailored to disk-based backup and archiving, but these are separate from their tape arrays.

Meanwhile, Overland Storage Inc. (Nasdaq: OVRL) today announced it has acquired disk-based backup appliance startup Okapi Software Inc. (see Overland Buys Okapi for $5M, Disk Backup's a Red-Hot Idea, and our report, Disk Backup 101).ADIC would be among the first vendors to deliver a tape library that incorporates disk arrays. Bob Amatruda, research manager at IDC for tape and removable storage, says tape vendors like ADIC are in a better position to supply disk-based backup solutions to the market.

"I do believe that tape and tape subsystem suppliers understand backup and data protection, much more so than the pure-play disk suppliers," he says. Amatruda notes that most enterprise customers are interested in integrated solutions, and are looking for ways to use disk to augment tape backup rather than replace it.

Introduced in March, ADIC's i2000 provides an internal library control server and can handle between 100 and 2,200 cartridges, which can be a mix of AIT, LTO, or SDLT (see ADIC Launches i2000 Library). Combined with the company's StorNext management software and file system, the library will be able to let users set policies about which data should get backed up to disk rather than tape, ADIC says.

"We're putting intelligence into the library," van Oppen says. "Moving forward, you're going to have much smarter units of storage like this." He notes that ADIC has gradually increased its R&D spending: In the most recent quarter, R&D was 11 percent of revenues, compared with 4 to 6 percent in prior periods.

Van Oppen emphasizes that ADIC isn't getting into the disk business. The point of having disk directly in the tape library is to simplify management and provide customers with more flexible options. "We're selling it from a one-throat-to-choke model," he says.But ADIC may also be hoping to avoid leaving money on the table -- or losing deals altogether -- in situations where customers are considering adopting disk-based backup.

For example, this week Compagnie Gnérale de Géophysique (CGG), a French oil exploration firm, announced that it plans to redeploy its ADIC tape autoloaders, which the company has used to store 3 petabytes of seismic images, and instead use low-cost ATA disk storage systems from LSI Logic Storage Systems Inc. for its primary storage (see LSI Wins Gigantesque Deal).

Another ADIC customer, EarthLink Inc., is also considering putting in ATA storage to supplement its tape backup. Ron Williams, senior manager of infrastructure operations at EarthLink, says ADIC's disk option probably wouldn't suit his company's particular needs but adds that it might be attractive to those with smaller storage environments.

"For bigger shops like ours that have a big investment in SANs, it's probably better to keep [low-cost disk] as a separate tier," he says. "But for shops with one tier of storage, I do think it makes sense to integrate disk with the tape, because administration is going to be a lot easier."

— Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch