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Competitive Snapshot - Overland NEO Agility LTFS vs Quantum Scalar LTFS
A snapshot of the new LTFS hardware appliance by Overland
Storage, the NEO Agility LTFS, which is also and archive appliance and the
Quantum Scalar LTFS hardware appliance.
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NEO Agility |
Scalar LTFS |
Comments |
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| Disk Cache |
√ |
X |
- Scalar LTFS requires archive operations to wait until an LTO drive becomes available. This causes a delay in archive operations. NEO Agility buffers archived files on its disk cache to avoid any such delays.
- Scalar LTFS is limited in speed. This forces the LTO drives to undergo unnecessary speed changes and starts/stops, which lead to drive and cartridge wear. NEO Agility caches restored files on disk, allowing restores from LTO to occur at maximum speed for the fastest and most reliable operation, regardless of network and target disk storage performance.
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| Windows Offline |
√ |
X |
Unlike NEO Agility, Scalar LTFS does not recognize the Windows Offline Attribute, which is a tool that prevent timeouts when waiting for a file to be restored. When coupled with a lack of disk cache, the Scalar LTFS will timeout. This means operations have to be repeated and the system can freeze from time to time.
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| Span Cartridges |
√ |
X |
Unlike NEO Agility, Scalar LTFS does not span cartridges. If a file folder structure is copied and the cartridge I filled before all files are written, the Scalar LTFS returns an error, interrupting archive operations.
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| Flexible # of archive/restore operations
|
√ |
X |
Scalar LTFS limits the number of simultaneous archive and restore requests by the number of LTO drives. If more requests are sent to the system, the sending application will receive an error. NEO Agility has no such limitation and provides a much higher degree of flexibility.
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| Cartridge replication
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√ |
X |
Scalar LTFS does not have the ability to automatically replicate cartridges. Manual options to replicate cartridges are either burdensome or would slow down network traffic. NEO Agility, on the other hand, can automatically schedule the creation of one or more replica cartridges. Additionally, NEO Agility has the ability to prioritize restores over the creation of duplicate cartridges.
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| Support exported cartridges
|
√ |
X |
When a cartridge is exported, the files disappear from the Scalar system. However, with NEO Agility if an offline file is accessed, we will provide an email alert identifying the barcode of the cartridges that contains the file. This improves file restoration time.
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| Repack function |
√ |
X |
Unlike Scalar LTFS, NEO Agility allows the current contents of an LTO cartridge to be copied to another cartridge, omitting the deleting and overwriting of files. This frees up space on the cartridge and Is useful when migrating to a new generation of tape cartridges.
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| Rename/delete files |
√ |
X |
NEO Agility allows files to be renamed or deleted, regardless of whether the cartridges on which they are stored are full or not. Additionally, NEO Agility provides strong version management and allows the recovery of any deleted files. These features are not supported on the Scalar LTFS.
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| Unlimited drive support
|
√ |
X |
While Scalar LTFS limits support to a maximum of 8 LTO tape drives, NEO Agility archive servers will manage an unlimited number of LTO tape drives.
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| Partial Restore
|
√ |
X |
NEO Agility supports restore of a portion of a file without having to read the whole file from an LTFS-written cartridge. Scalar LTFS does not support this function.
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| Comprehensive reporting
|
√ |
X |
NEO Agility provides reports that list the contents of a cartridge or provide file search capabilities. Scalar LTFS does not provide this capability.
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| 1u rack height
|
√ |
X |
Taking up twice as much rack space with a 2u rack height, Scalar LTFS unnecessarily uses up valuable data center rack space.
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| Superior value
|
√ |
X |
NEO Agility 80 provides 15% lower purchase price PLUS support for 6 tape drives PLUS support for unlimited # of cartridges
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