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HP FINDS HOLE IN TAPE BACK-UP OFFERINGS
Up until now, there have been two popular tape storage
formats, low end digital audio tape (DAT) and 8-mm tape cartridges and
high end 3480 and 3490 tape cartridges. Concurrently, client-server
computing began replacing mainframe computers for mission critical applications
in large corporations. Thus smaller servers have proliferated throughout
a company’s LAN. The servers’ on line storage was too small
for the 3490 and too large for DAT and 8-mm..
The storage capacity window for this unserved niche ranged in size from
a few hundred megabytes up to hundreds of gigabytes on storage. The
need is for a tape solution with a price-performance between the high
and low end. The solution is digital linear tape (DLT).
DLT tape technology was developed originally by Digital Equipment Corp.
of Maynard, Mass. and acquired and enhanced by Quantum Corp. of Milpitas,
Calif. It was designed to meet the needs of the midrange computer systems
world. It had languished for a few years as market demand suddenly caught
up.
Now the DLT market is on a rapid growth ramp. According to Freeman Associates
Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif., broad market acceptance of DLT automation
will result in an overall market growth of DLT tape libraries of more
than 2,000 percent between 1995 and the year 2000, representing a market
of almost 25,000 units in the year 2000.
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