HP and Sony Collaborate to Improve Capacity and Performance of Digital Audio
Tape Drives
HP and Sony Corporation today announced an
agreement to create the next generation Digital Audio Tape format - the DAT 320
- providing improved performance and capacity over existing
DAT drives.
HP and Sony are jointly developing the DAT or
Digital Data Storage (DDS) standard, but will separately offer their own DAT 320
tape drives and cartridges. Similar to previous generations of DAT/DDS, the DAT
320 will be an open standard, which ensures partners can continue to obtain
license rights.
Small and midsize businesses as well as
enterprises with remote offices use tape to archive and back up data as a key
component of their disaster recovery strategies. IDC forecasts the tape market
will generate more than $1.4 billion in 2009.(1) The industry is experiencing
healthy performance since tape provides SMBs with a cost-effective storage
solution to handle the massive increase in digital data.
"The DAT 320 offers customers and partners a
data protection solution that delivers unmatched performance and capacity," said
Bob Wilson, vice president and general manager, Storage Platforms Division, HP.
"Combining the expertise of two industry leaders that share a legacy of
delivering proven
DAT/DDS technology will result in a new
standard for tape archiving with the low cost of ownership and reliability DAT
customers have grown to expect."
"Demand for higher-capacity data backup and
archiving continues to be important for small and midsize businesses and
enterprise environments," said Masayoshi Sugiyama, president, Chemical Device
and Energy Business Group, and executive vice president of Sony Corporation.
"Combining HP's technical base, which includes six
DAT generations, and Sony's 50-year history in
magnetic recording technology, including Metal Evaporated based media, will
provide a compelling solution to meet the demands of higher-capacity and
easy-to-manage data protection."Twice
the capacity and performance
Businesses rely on the volume-leading DAT
format to back up and restore critical business data. This provides protection
against the loss of data in the case of events such as system failures, operator
error, theft and natural disasters.
"The data storage and archive needs of small
and midsize businesses continue grow at an unabated pace," said Robert Amatruda,
research director, Tape and Removable Storage, IDC. "The DAT 320 drive provides
a cost-effective data protection solution, especially for those who have used
DAT/DDS tape technology for more than a decade."
With backup speeds of up to 86 gigabytes (GB) per hour with 2:1 data
compression, the DAT 320 will offer up to 320 GB of capacity on a single
cartridge - compared with 160 GB, available from the current
DAT 160 format. The DAT 320 also will consume
fewer watts per GB than previous generations and will be backwards compatible
with the DAT 160.
Pricing and availability
HP and Sony will offer the same base hardware
for the DAT 320, but will develop unique features within the firmware
configuration to sell the DAT 320 tape drives and media through their own
branded and OEM business channels.
More information about models, configurations, feature sets and prices will be
announced by the companies separately. General availability is expected in 2009