ProStor Confirms RDX Capacity at 640GB

ProStor Systems announced the availability of a new 640GB (1.28TB compressed) RDX removable disk cartridge. As with all industry standard RDX removable disk, the latest RDX cartridge is fully read and write compatible with all RDX, RD1000 and ProStor InfinVault products.

RDX removable disk solutions allow businesses to leverage the benefits of speed, instant access and reliability of disk, with the ruggedness, removability and offsite storage capabilities of tape. Along with its much lower entry price, RDX now offers 4x higher capacity and nearly 4x the performance of the latest generation of DAT tape, with RDX cartridge capacities continuing to increase by approximately 50% per year.  The new capacity increase means system administrators and users alike can quickly and easily back up their servers and workstations onto a single RDX cartridge while keeping up with ever increasing data growth. RDX users protect their technology investment simply by choosing from the RDX disk cartridge capacities, ranging now from 80 GB to 640 GB, to suit their specific applications.

"ProStor System’s new 640GB RDX drive helps to address the need for removable data-protection for host and server backup," said Robert Amatruda, Research Director, Data-Protection and Recovery at IDC. "First-tier OEM adoption of RDX and the precipitous decline of prevailing low-end tape technologies such as DDS/DAT is evidence of its growing popularity."

“We like RDX because RDX docks and cartridge capacities are fully compatible and interchangeable, unlike tape drives which introduce incompatibility with each new generation that require the purchase of a new system,” concurred Dennis Martin, president of Demartek, a company that provides product validation testing for the computer industry. “The forward compatibility of RDX makes upgrading simple while reducing our capital outlay as opposed to the newest generation of DAT tape which is incompatible with nearly the entire installed base of drives.  By now adding the 640GB cartridge, we’re able to keep up with our data growth without having to buy any new equipment or make any other process changes – a win-win for all.”

There are over 180,000 customers worldwide with over 80PB (80 million gigabytes) of RDX cartridge capacity in use today. RDX backup solutions are available from major OEMs, media manufacturers and resellers worldwide, including Dell, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Imation, Maxell, NEC and Tandberg Data.

ProStor InfiniVault customers will also benefit from an automatic 28% archival capacity increase without any system changes or any additional system cost.  The new 640GB RDX cartridge technology gives current ProStor InfiniVault users additional free capacity and adds additional purchasing inducement for data centers looking for an archive solution that perfectly balances cost prohibitive disk storage versus performance limiting tape archive solutions.

“The ever-increasing demand for archived data across all business types drives the need for equivalent additional cost-effective storage options,” concluded Mark Peters, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Whether the use of RDX technology is driven by general business needs or regulatory compliance, and whether it is implemented standalone or combined with the additional automated functions in ProStor’s InfiniVault, this new version delivers a welcome and market-relevant blend of price, performance, capacity and proven reliability.”

RDX 640GB cartridges will be generally available beginning this month with pricing set individually by each supplier. RDX dock products are available today in 3.5” and 5.25” half-height form-factors for integration inside rack and tower system chassis, as well as tabletop and rackmount configurations.  Interface options include SATA and USB.