Moving away from DAT

DAT customers to move to a better location

Later this summer, the final stocks of DAT 320 media will be shipped and you will no longer be able to buy media for your DAT 320 drives. This is a great opportunity to migrate to newer storage technologies with greater capacity and performance.

• DAT 320 tapes are being phased out: DDS/DAT has been a hugely successful format but is now superseded by much more powerful and cost-effective alternatives.
• Recommended alternative solutions include RDX or LTO Ultrium, based on your data storage needs and budget – today and tomorrow.
• There are features and benefits to both RDX - Removable Disk Storage and LTO Ultrium Tape Storage.
• There are drawbacks of relying on external HDD's or cloud services.

For most DAT users, RDX will the most appropriate solution, although a minority may have a usage model and budget to justify upgrading to HP LTO-5/LTO-6 drives and media.

Key considerations:

• How many copies of your data do you need?
• How does your business maintain productivity while backup and restore processes are taking place?
• Doe you have a disaster revocovery plan in place? How quickly do your business operations require access to backed up or archived data?
• Do you require encryption for your data?

RDX - Removable Disk Storage

RDX technology is great for single- server organizations that generate and need fast access to large amounts of business-critical data using workstations or servers, but don’t need to keep numerous cartridges.

A removable hard disk drive (RHDD) storage technology that combines some of the best features of disk and tape in a complete, affordable data protection solution.

• 320 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB capacity removable disk cartridges.
• Drag and drop file access makes backup easy and convenient.
• Compatible with leading CDP/ISV backup software applications.
• Warranted for 5,000 load/unload insertions – around 10 years.
• Portable, durable and shock proof cartridges.
• Broad compatibility with a wide range of servers and operating systems (using RDX internal or external docking stations).
• Long lasting design means cartridges are interchangeable in any RDX docking station now and in the future - good for ROI.

Why should you choose RDX?
It’s fast. Backs up data at hard drive speeds (up to 360 GB/hr) and restores critical files in seconds.

It’s great value.
Durable design and a great price delivers an unbeatable return on investment.

It’s 1000X more durable than DAT tape.
Specified for 5,000 load/unload cycles (insert, backup, eject) compared with 50 for DAT media.

It’s scalable up to 2 TB.

It’s automatic.
Every change made on your customer's system can be captured and backed up as it happens using HP Continuous Data Protection (CDP) or scheduled routines.

There’s no more guesswork.
Seamless cartridge rotation makes sure data is always properly archived. The media cannot be removed while backups are running or scheduled. Staff can safely run local backups and rotate media without specialist skills or training.

There’s minimal exposure to wear and tear.
A closed interface between the drive head and the media means: No media or drive wear. • No head/media track alignment issues. • No debris build-up.

It fits anywhere.
Half-height external, internal, or rack-mount models are available.

It has a 25%-40% lower TCO than DAT.
Through superior product quality and low operating overhead compared with expensive manual intervention for tape (maintenance, media rotation, media replacement, labeling), backup verifications/reruns.

It’s trusted.
With more than 90% of the RHDD market, RDX is the most popular RHDD solution for SMEs.

LTO Ultrium Tape Drives and Autoloaders

An entry-level LTO Ultrium solution will be a better DAT alternative than RDX for organizations with more sophisticated backup and archiving needs. LTO Ultrium cartridges cost far less than RDX cartridges and are designed for media rotation, automation and long-term archiving.

What is it?
As part of the LTO open standard, all HP tape drives and media offer the same standards of compatibility with tape drives and media manufactured by other LTO vendors. HP is one of the LTO Technology Provider companies which define the requirements for each generation of Ultrium products and is the market leading LTO drive manufacturer today with 54% share of the LTO tape drive market worldwide. On the media side, the HP Brand specification for LTO Ultrium data cartridges is the industry’s most demanding quality requirement and plays a major part in HP LTO drive performance and efficiency. HP's precision-engineered storage media has moved with the times to challenge and outclass the very best disk technologies. Small organizations can benefit from LTO’s high performance backup and archiving solutions from standalone tape drives to autoloaders and the midrange automation family.

Key Features:

• Rewritable tape cartridges ranging from 800 GB at LTO-3 to 6.25 TB at LTO-6.
• Highest capacity and lowest cost per gigabyte.
• Outstanding performance and reliability - better than conventional SATA HDD.
• Data encryption to FIPS140-2 Level 1 certification for enhanced data security (LTO-4 upwards).
• Scalable up to 6.25 TB (compressed) for businesses creating large data assets.
• Ideal for automated, hands-free data protection, from eight slot autoloaders to libraries that can expand to hundreds of slots for media.
• Warranted for up to 30 years archival life.
• Exhaustively qualified for use with HP and non-HP LTO products (2.6 million test hours a year emulating real-world environmental conditions and usage).
• Interchangeable, color coordinated cartridges providing backwards compatibility (two generations read and one generation write).

Why should customers choose LTO Ultrium?

Scalable up to 6.25 TB.
An LTO-3 800 GB cartridge offers more twice the compressed capacity of an HP DAT 320 GB cartridge and costs less to buy.

High performance.
Backup speeds of 576 GB/hr or 864 GB/hr (compressed). Later generations incorporate the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) to make data recorded on tape searchable and shareable, and provide simple drag-and-drop functionality.

Lowest total cost of ownership.
HP LTO is the most economical way to protect large amounts of data, especially when taking energy-efficiency into account. It requires a fraction of the energy for writing and reading data, and none at all for a cartridge in a slot or on a shelf. An LTO-4 1.6 TB data cartridge can cost little more than $40 compared with $200 for 1 TB RDX.

Longest archival life.
Proven by archival testing as in excess of 30 years.

Automated loaders and libraries.
Unattended backup activities can be run with one or more computers/servers, change tapes automatically and minimize the risk of operator error.

High security.
Data is offline to threats, and LTO Ultrium offers the added security of WORM and hardware-based data encryption with LTO-4 and upwards.

Tough and portable.
Data can be safely taken data off site for disaster recovery, archive, or data transfer. HP carries out accelerated life testing of both drives and media to deliver quality, durability and reliability in excess of the LTO specification