… As Well as StorageTek LTFS Library Software

Oracle Corp. announced StorageTek LTFS, Library Edition (LTFS LE) software.

It enables customers to take advantage of tape’s low cost per terabyte without the operations and cost overhead of legacy tape management.

It helps makes tape storage as easy to use and manage as disk at a lower cost, using a familiar drag-and-drop. It broadens the appeal of tape storage in industries with large file assets, such as media and entertainment, enabling customers to take advantage of tape’s low cost per terabyte for backup, large-scale data retention, archive and preservation projects, while allowing customers to save 40% in acquisition cost over IBM’s TS3500 20PB tape library solution.

With a NAS-like file structure with both search and index capabilities that can be accessed directly through a standard file system interface, users can drag-and-drop files between tape and disk storage systems without additional specialized, archive or backup management software.

As media and entertainment video formats rapidly increase in size and scale, StorageTek continues to innovate with new solutions for this industry. StorageTek LTFS LE simplifies the adoption of high capacity tape storage to support use cases:

• Digital media distribution to support file-based workflow and broadcast production and play-out operations
• Storage and archive of 2K, 4K, and 8K (IMAX) digital formats
• On-set capture and backup of video footage from digital cameras

Oracle’s StorageTek LTFS LE helps improve workflow efficiency and speeds tape operations by:
Providing a simple, low cost, open format interface for sharing data on tape between users and between applications.
Enabling users to more easily find files by eliminating the need to re-mount tape cartridges to retrieve index data or cartridge information such as volume information, file type, file size and creation date.

StorageTek LTFS LE also provides customers with a simple, more efficient way to move away from expensive "disk-only" environments that can cost about 26 times as much as the average cost of a tape-based solution using an automated tape library (Revisiting the Search for Long-Term Storage – A TCO Analysis of Tape and Disk. The Clipper Group.)

Both StorageTek LTFS LE and StorageTek T10000D tape drive deliver capacity, performance and cost advantages that extend the use of tape storage beyond conventional backup and archiving.

Both new digital archiving solutions are featured at the IBC2013 conference in Amsterdam.

"Oracle’s StorageTek LTFS, Library Edition Software enables customers to more readily capitalize on the advantages of tape storage by making it as easy to use and manage as the familiar ‘drag-and-drop’ paradigm in flash and disk storage," said James Cates, VP, hardware development, Oracle. "Tape can be the most economical and most scalable storage medium and Oracle’s LTFS LE broadens the potential markets for tape storage, including high growth digital archives in media/entertainment, cloud storage services, healthcare, scientific research and more."

"LTFS implemented at the library level is a significant step forward for the LTFS industry initiative and we expect it will dramatically increase the use cases for LTFS and open up new opportunities for tape storage," said Tom Coughlin, founder and president, Coughlin Associates. "In particular, I expect the media and entertainment industry, already an early adopter of LTFS at the drive level, to quickly embrace LTFS implemented at the tape library level."

"Implementing LTFS at the library level will bridge one of the last gaps for LTFS in the Enterprise. This support will enable us to combine the scale of LTFS for ingest operations with the benefits of LTFS in the library," said Mark Lemmons, CTO, T3Media, Inc. "As a large-scale user of StorageTek tape storage, T3Media is looking forward integrating Oracle’s LTFS Library Edition software into our platform."

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