DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of its DCIG 2014-15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 80 features on more than 40 tape libraries from eight (8) different storage providers. Driven by growing corporate requirements to economically meet Big Data’s storage capacity demands, tape and tape libraries are finding new life in this environment. Like all previous DCIG Buyer’s Guides, this Buyer’s Guide provides the critical information that organizations need when selecting a tape library as they (again) come to the realization that storing data to tape long term remains a cost-effective and viable option.
There has been a campaign against tape since at least the turn of the century as disk storage vendors, historically the competitors of tape storage, have sought to sunset tape technology. As storage advancements have increased, hard drives have become cheaper and able to handle larger amounts of data with fewer complications. Despite the technological advancements for disk, however, it still cannot challenge tape for its supremacy in its ability to store large amounts of data for lengthy periods of time, and do so with relatively few associated risks.
These specific benefits make expansive tape libraries a necessity as the Big Data market and its storage capacity demands grow ever larger each year. An illustration of this growth is that while tape sales dropped by 14% in 2012 overall, sales actually rose by 1% in the third quarter of 2012, and some analysts expect them to increase again by at least 3% in calendar year 2013. The amount of this data growth is becoming exponentially greater as small, medium and large enterprise organizations alike generate much more data.
This makes the cost structure of tape particularly attractive to users with large data sets as, once data is created, it stays relatively static. Further, these Big Data datasets typically grow significantly over time, rarely change as they grow and are only infrequently accessed. That makes this data makes a perfect fits for tape’s inherent state of “set it and forget it.”
Tape also offers distinctive security and reliability advantages over disk. Data backed up to tape is typically more secure than data stored on disk or in the cloud because, in part, tape can make data more difficult to access and then retrieve.
Lastly, tape is still more durable than disk. In addition to their approximately 30 year life span, tapes may also be repaired after snapping to make the data accessible and readable again. In contrast, hard disk drives (HDDs) often only have a life of about five (5) years with failed HDDs typically rendered useless with the data on them becoming inaccessible.
Aside from the various legacy advantages that tape still holds over disk, there are some advances being made in tape storage medium, most notably with REST APIs, which are one of the new features identified and scored by the DCIG 2014-15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide. REST uses a subset of HTTP, a protocol with which many programmers are already familiar, meaning they can write code for it with few complications. Furthermore, REST APIs are web-based services and protocols that make up much of the underpinnings of new public and private cloud datasets.
It is for reasons like these that DCIG produced its updated 2014-15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide. All the evidence supports tape remaining a viable and important storage medium for the foreseeable future. In this Buyer’s Guide, DCIG accounts for tape’s historical use case of backup as well as its continuing emergent role as a cost effective storage medium for archival data that is necessary in the era of Big Data.
The DCIG 2014-15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide Top 10 solutions include (in alphabetical order):
- HP StoreEver ESL G3 1500 slot
- HP StoreEver ESL G3 3000 slot
- HP StoreEver ESL G3 5000 slot
- IBM TS3500
- Oracle StorageTek SL150
- Oracle StorageTek SL3000
- Oracle StorageTek SL8500
- Spectra Logic T680
- Spectra Logic T950
- Spectra Logic T-Finity
The Oracle StorageTek SL8500 ranked highest of the models evaluated in the DCIG 2014–15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide, earning the Best-In-Class ranking. The Oracle StorageTek SL8500 scales to over 850 PB raw (uncompressed) data and, assuming the LTO-6 2.5:1 data compression standard is applied, can store a staggering two (2) exabytes or more of data. This coupled with its support for 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb FC storage networking connectivity; redundant robotics, fan and power supplies; active-active I/O controllers; and, support for advanced functions such as REST object storage and tape drive virtualization drove this model to the top of this Guide’s rankings.
In doing its research for this Buyer’s Guide, DCIG uncovered some interesting statistics about tape libraries in general:
- 100% support the LTO-5 and LTo-6 formats
- 100% support a 8Gb FC and 6 Gb SAS interfaces
- 95% have customer replaceable tape drives
- 83% support hot swappable tape drives
- 67% are rack mountable
- 65% support at least 100 tape cartridge slots
- 40% support two different tape drive formats
- 38% support at least 1 PB of storage capacity (70% more than the previous Guide)
- 38% support half-height tape drives
- 19% offer redundant controllers
As with prior DCIG Buyer’s Guides, this Buyer’s Guide accomplishes the following objectives:
- Provides an objective, third party evaluation of tape libraries that weights, scores and ranks their features from a end user’s viewpoint
- Includes recommendations on how to best use this Buyer’s Guide
- Scores and ranks the features on each tape library based upon criteria that matter most to end users so they can quickly know which tape libraries are the most appropriate for them to use and under what conditions
- Provides data sheets for 44 tape libraries from eight (8) different storage providers so end users can do quick comparisons of the features that are supported and not supported on each tape library
- Provides insight into which features on a tape library will result in improved availability and increased storage capacities
- Provides insight into which tape libraries are supported by popular archiving and backup software products
- Gives any organization the ability to request competitive bids from different providers of tape libraries that are “apples-to-apples” comparisons
The DCIG 2014-15 Big Data Tape Library Buyer’s Guide is immediately available through the DCIG analyst portal for subscribing users by following this link.