Hi,

The only real reason to buy a DLT library today (other than perhaps internal
company standards) is to buy a library with half inch media slots so its
ready for LTO when it comes out and then swap the drives and all the tapes.

DLT is not the ideal companion for ADSM due to the very long time it takes a
DLT drive to become ready once a tape has been inserted. Similar for
dismount operations. If you are doing migration from disk to collocated
primary storage pool then the drive ready times can significantly impact
throughput with a large number of clients. Then think about futures for the
media format. Will there really ever be a DLT format after 7000 retaining
compatability with previous versions?

For a great cost/reliability rating then EMASS AML/S is an excellent
scalable library with AIT drives. If you need smaller then Qualstar is
great. Both of these work really well with ADSM now. An advantage of the
EMASS libraries is that they can take multiple media formats, eg AIT and
3590. In terms of device support (probably the reason for asking what IBM
developers work with) all these vendors seem to be working really well
together these days.

If cost and floor space and power are not an issue then IBM 3494 with 3590
are great technology and work well with ADSM (strangely enough).

Regards
Alan