EditShare Expands Ark LTO Libraries

EditShare LLC announced the expansion of its library product offering. Ark Tape is an energy-efficient media backup and archiving solution that integrates with the company’s shared storage and asset management solutions.

Powered by HP’s LTO technology, the new Ark Tape libraries are available in 2U/24-slot and 4U/48-slot configurations, and offer a choice of capacity and interfaces. The units support LTO-6 or LTO-5 tape drives with SAS or FC connectivity.

Web-based remote management makes the Ark Tape libraries easy to manage from across the room or across the globe. Users can also manage tape media both in and out of the library with an included bar code reader, configurable mail slots and multiple 12-slot removable magazines. Users can increase capacity and/or performance by adding tape drives or stacking two libraries together into one larger unit.

Ark Tape Library Specifications

• Available in 2U (24 slots) or 4U (48 slots) form factor
• Supports two LTO-6 or LTO-5 drives with 6Gb SAS or 8Gb FC connectivity
• Two removable 12-slot magazines, one of which contains a one-tape mail slot for the 2U configuration, or four removable 12-slot magazines, one of which contains a three-tape mail slot for the 4U configuration
• Web-based GUI
• Bar code reader
• Includes rack mount kit and user documentation
• New Ark Tape Library Expander
• The optional Ark Tape Library Extender kit connects two tape libraries together, creating a single, logical library that shares cartridges and drives.
• Expander occupies one LTO drive slot on each unit

LTO drives can be migrated between 2U and 4U units:

• 4U + 2U = Total of 72 slots
• 4U + 4U = Total of 96 slots

Ark Tape
Designed for EditShare’s own 24-, 48-, 72- and 96-slot tape libraries, and also compatible with LTO tape libraries from manufacturers such as HP, Quantum and SpectraLogic, Ark Tape facilitates creation of any number of ‘Tape Pools’ (groups of tapes); for example, one for an entire organization, one for each customer or project, or separate pools for on-site and off-site. Users can copy or migrate media and related files from online to offline storage, verify backed up data, and receive notifications when transfers are completed.

Ark Tape jobs are incremental. Users can start copying files today, run the same job in the future, and only files that have been changed or added are copied. Users can search for archived material, view automatically generated proxy files, and restore files or entire EditShare Spaces using EditShare Flow Browse.