Well, that's a pretty broad question. I am sure someone will get around to
an answer soon.

Here's my piece for what it is worth.

Surprised no one offered 3590 technology!! Price could be it. But the second
hand market is pretty ok. Mind you the sales guy would not make as much then
would he? Never stopped me in the past though. But it depends on how big
your enterprise is and what data your trying to get at. Think about the data
you are backing up. Think about how your are going to go about restoring it.
Think about the mechanics of the drive... Are the data a mix of big files,
small files. On restore, will the tape perform?  How will it handle skipping
past data it does not require? For example,3584
This tape technology offers high performance and reliability and can connect
to multiple operating systems for
library sharing.

3590's are very strong in stop start operations (small files), and just as
good in streaming operations where huge data files. Good in big system
operations as well. Such as mainframs.

If you have the chance speak to as many people in operations, Customer
Service Engineers.

Get with someone from each company who understands the demands you have.

Andy Raibeck from this group has written some really good stuff on tape
drive techologies. You can gain access to his writting's on the subject from
the adsm.org website as I recall.

Also, the choice of library may have a bit to do with it as well. Some offer
both 3584 and DLT in the same cabinet.

Ok, each to his own...... my afternoon tea is over ...

Happy researching.....

Regards

Stephen


-----Original Message-----
From: Leonard Lauria [mailto:leonard AT UKY DOT EDU]
Sent: 30 September, 2003 9:25 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Tape Technology Comparison


At 01:09 PM 9/30/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Hello
>
>Anybody out there able to share their thoughts and experiences?
>
>We're doing a technology refresh on some of our libraries and have a number
>of products in the frame:
>IBM 3584 / LTO-2
>ADIC Scalar i2000 / LTO-2
>HP ESL9322 / LTO-2
>StorageTek L700e / T9940B
>
>The interesting one from my point of view is the L700e with its T9940B
>drives. The performance/capacity comparisons between LTO-2 and T9940B seem
>close enough to make no difference which leaves cost and reliability as the
>differentiators.
>
>Reliability will be an important factor in our decision and the T9940B
>seems to be marketed as a high duty cycle, 24 x 7 drive. Does anybody have
>any real world experieces in a TSM environment which suggest the T9940B is
>more (or less) reliable than LTO-2? Should I be concerned about going for a
>'proprietary' technology like 9x40 instead of an 'open' standard like LTO?
>
>Also, any thoughts on the libraries we are considering would be gratefully
>appreciated.
>
>For info, no suppliers offered 3590 or 3592. This was probably on grounds
>of cost but I'm guessing the first is looking obsolete now while the second
>is a bit too new. Also, we're upgrading from DLT7000 libraries so chances
>are we'll be ecstatic with whatever we get.
>
>Thanks
>Neil Schofield
>Yorkshire Water Services
>
>
>
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