Strong Growth for Tape Libraries, Said Spectra Logic

Spectra Logic Corp. announced a record-setting year and strong double-digit growth for its enterprise tape libraries, medium-sized tape libraries and disk-based backup appliances for fiscal 2010, which ended June 30. Strong demand for enterprise tape-based archiving and backup also drove Spectra Logic’s bottom line as the company posted its fourth consecutive year of profitable growth.

"Our continuous advancements in tape reliability and data integrity combined with tape’s widely-recognized cost advantages are driving a resurgence in demand for high density, energy-efficient tape storage solutions at large and medium-sized enterprises – from backup to deep archiving to active archiving," said Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic’s chief executive officer. "We continue to lead the industry in tape innovation and have made significant technology advances over the years. Because of this, Spectra’s enterprise tape libraries are becoming the standard for demanding enterprise environments including high performance computing (HPC), media and entertainment, federal and other large organizations worldwide."

Financial highlights and growth drivers
Spectra Logic’s total revenues increased in fiscal 2010 as compared with fiscal 2009, with a very notable sales growth trajectory in the second half of the year that is continuing into fiscal 2011. Enterprise tape sales increased 22 percent year over year, as the company achieved record-setting, double-digit sales growth across its enterprise and medium-sized tape libraries, disk-based systems and services/support.

Fiscal year 2010 growth drivers include:

• Strong demand for enterprise class tape libraries, including the Spectra T-Finity, which was introduced in fiscal 2010, and the Spectra T950. Compatible with both LTO and IBM TS1130 drives and media, the T-Finity is the highest capacity enterprise tape library. It garnered industry-wide recognition and several prominent awards during the year, including the Storage Awards ‘Green Product of the Year’, the HPC industry’s renowned DICE Data Intensive Impact Awards ‘Product of the Year’, the 2010 Storage Visions ‘Product of the Year’ and the 2010 IQ Innovation Award.
• Spectra Logic’s tape technology advancements, which helped to boost demand for its tape backup and archive solutions. These advancements include increased data reliability offered by Spectra’s Library Lifecycle Management, and Spectra’s Data Integrity Verification capabilities, which confirm that data is properly written and accessible from the tape media as needed – tomorrow or in years to come.
• Increased demand for Spectra’s nTier disk appliances, which was bolstered by enterprise and medium-sized customers selecting integrated disk and tape solutions to best optimize the data center.
• Accelerating international growth, including 35 percent growth in Europe, which is the largest growth in this region in one year in company history.
• Worldwide channel partner revenue growth of more than ten percent year over year, which was driven by a 20 percent increase in SpectraEDGE channel partners and expanded geographic reach in Europe, Canada and South America. Spectra Logic currently has more than 475 global SpectraEDGE channel partners.

"Organizations of all sizes know they can depend on Spectra Logic to provide smart, value-driven data backup and archive solutions that can handle fast-growing data volumes and high data availability, and provide for greener IT environments that use less energy and minimize floor space," said Brian Grainger, vice president of worldwide sales, Spectra Logic. "Our momentum attests to Spectra’s ability to outpace the competition in delivering what customers value most – from superior scalability, reliability and efficiency to unmatched customer service. Spectra delivers on all these things and more."

Active Archive Alliance
Spectra Logic joined with Compellent Technologies, FileTek and QStar Technologies to found the Active Archive Alliance in April 2010. Many additional industry partners have joined this fast-growing collaborative industry alliance since its inception. The Alliance is dedicated to promoting active archives for simplified, online access to all archived data, and is quickly increasing awareness of the advantages of active archives. This initiative is already contributing to Spectra Logic’s archive-based revenue growth in fiscal 2011.

Key product introductions and announcements
Spectra Logic continued its tradition of delivering innovative, award-winning archive and backup solutions.

Key fiscal 2010 announcements include:

• Spectra Logic Ships LTO-5 drives and media in T-Series tape libraries, June 2010
• Spectra Logic doubles capacity and memory of high-performance disk appliance, May 2010
• Spectra Logic ranks in top 10 percent of Government GSA contractors for third consecutive year, March, 2010
• Spectra Logic was awarded Everything Channel Partner Program Guide and Five-Star Partner Rating in March 2010, and executive Molly Rector was recognized as a 2010 Channel Chief by Everything Channel’s CRN, February 2010
• Spectra Logic delivers high-performance deduplication to European market, Sept. 2009
• Spectra Logic offers industry’s first LTO-5 tape drive pre-purchase program, Sept. 2009
• Spectra Logic introduces high availability enterprise tape enhancements previously only available in disk arrays, Aug. 2009
• Spectra Logic simplifies remote site data replication and tape archive with integrated, deduplication solution, Aug. 2009

New Worldwide Headquarters
Spectra Logic also opened its new worldwide headquarters in Boulder, Colorado in March 2010, in an expanded 80,712-square-foot facility that houses all of the company’s Boulder-based staff. The new facility showcases a large, raised-floor customer demonstration area to view Spectra’s enterprise-targeted products as well as an Executive Briefing Center.