Spectra Logic: You can't, er, stick to tape forever

Tape vendors are very few in number now: Oracle (StorageTek), IBM and Spectra Logic. The market is quite static and the only thing that actually happens each year is a new tape generation (just more space and throughput) ... and that’s it. Spectra Logic, which held its annual Summit a few days ago, does have some interesting …

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me, or does the right-hand side of the picture look like an enormous shark coming up out of the sea?

[TonyJ]

"...Is it just me, or does the right-hand side of the picture look like an enormous shark coming up out of the sea?..."

No, not just you...and I can came to post exactly the same thing but you beat me to it :)

[Aqua Marina]

You can't, er, stick to tape forever

For the last 20 years there's always someone saying that the end is nigh for tape. 20 years later and tape is still part of my daily backup. I have a smattering of removable disks in there, but if everything goes titsup, the tape is the one thing left to try after all other virtualisations, replications and hard disks have failed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Appears the author needs to investigate this segment a bit more thoroughly. "Tape vendors are very few in number now: Oracle (StorageTek), IBM and Spectra Logic." There are a few more which according to the recent IDC share reports list HP and QTM as worthy participants.

[Joerg]

Actually the LTO Ultrium standard still has quite some manufacturers:

Atmel

Fujifilm*

HP*

IBM*

Imation

Maxell*

Mountain Engineering

Netc

NXP Semiconductors

Quantum*

Sony*

Spectra Logic

TDK

Teijin Dupont Film

Toray Industries

[Loud Speaker]

I quote from their web site

"As a result of the Certance acquisition, Quantum is the world’s largest volume supplier of both tape drives and tape automation. With the breadth of Quantum’s portfolio, we will be able to provide both channel and OEM partners with a single source of backup, recovery and archive solutions not available anywhere else".

Disclaimer: I do backup my servers with Quantum/Certance drives. I have personally restored tape backups after 30 years.

[Riku]

WTF?

Seriously? Quantum has around a THIRD of the global mid-range automation market, (a statistic that has been mentioned in this very rag by a Mr. C. Mellor on occasion). Apparently Enrico Signoretti hasn't heard of Hewlett Packard either (they've only been around, oh seventy-six years now). Not to mention Dell (they've been in the news a bit lately), even Overland and Qualstar manage to flog a library every now and then.

I have persevered as the editorial content of El Reg has declined into basically advertorial padded with tawdry innuendo, but this dreck utterly takes the cake. Sorry chaps but I'm going to follow in Magee's footsteps and take my eyeballs (and your associated ad-revenue, little though it is), off to the Inquirer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: WTF?

Are you sure that HP makes tape libraries? The ESL G3 is an OEM:d Quantum Scalar i6000, and the MSL 4048 is an OEM:d BDT FlexStor II" (just like the IBM TS3200, the Fujitsu LT60S2, the Spectra T50e, and the Dell TL4200). Quantum OEM:s to IBM and Dell as well, and Spectra is behind EMC.