I don't think you saw my point.  I asserting that you can't dismiss a drive
type based solely on how many hours per day you'll be using it.  That just
doesn't make sense.

There simply are more constraints than time and money.  You have to consider
things like support quality and availability, drive and media stability (are
they going to have a lot of problems), compatibility with existing
infrastructure (does it work with your existing library or the one you want
to purchase, what interfaces are available), form factor for offsite
storage, and technology age and stability.  I'm sure the subscribers to this
list could easily add many items to this list.  Ignoring everything other
than time and money is oversimplifying a complex situation.  I maintain you
have to use business and technological sense to make good decisions in the
types of environments in which NBU runs.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Chase [mailto:vaxzilla AT jarai DOT org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:20 PM
To: Quarantine
Cc: 'Steve Mickeler'; veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Media Types


On Tue, 13 May 2003, Quarantine wrote:

> I wouldn't say that.  If you have a very narrow backup window and a 
> lot of data, you should definitely consider STK.  There are *many* 
> more considerations other than write time.

I think it does depend on precisely what your time and money constraints
are.  LTO-2 supposedly does 35MB/s native vs the 19MB/s of 9840 and the
30MB/s of 9940.  So far, in my experiences with IBM's tape gear (3590 and
LTO-1), I've found them to always be truthful about their drives'
performance, but I've yet to get an LTO-2 in hand.  Others might be able to
comment on their experience with it.

For high volume users, $/GB can become a very important issue.  I'm getting
LTO-1 stock at around $0.65/GB which is a lot better than the $2.00+/GB for
the DTF-1 tapes my company had been using.  I expect that number to drop as
LTO-2 becomes a more widely available.

To address the original poster's question, in addition to looking at 9940
and 9840, AIT-3 would be worth looking at.  There's also S-AIT, which could
be interesting (whenever it comes to market).

-brian.
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