We're running 2 x 3584 with LTO-1 (24x7 read/write) for last 9 months. 
Had only one incident with drive few days after install.
We used STK 9740 with DLT7000 before IBM. 
STK replaced drives every second month if I remember correctly.
I'll stay away from DLT for sure...

Dmitri

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Chase [mailto:vaxzilla AT jarai DOT org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 2:18 PM
To: Jon Bousselot
Cc: Donaldson, Mark; veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Tape Libraries?


A few years ago, I was running IBM 3590 drives in one of their 3494
libraries.  That's another very reliable solution, but the capacity
doesn't meet my requirements here.  They also sell an LTO version of the
same library, the 3584, but it takes up a lot more space than a similar
capacity ADIC Scalar 10K.

And FWIW, I've never heard anything good about StorageTek libraries, and
the one time I had firsthand experience with them was at the job where I
ran the 3494 library.  The IT group had a StorageTek DLT library, and
about once every two weeks I had to slide a rack of my disk drives out
of their way so the StorageTek service guy could access their library to
repair it. :-)

Based on a past year of positive experiences with ADIC and their Scalar
10K, I think today I'd opt for one of their new Scalar i2Ks with LTO-2.
ADIC are also working on supporting Sony's S-AIT drives, so that's
another upgrade path if you don't want to go with LTO-2 or wait around
for LTO-3.  I'm interested in S-AIT myself, but this is Sony's first
foray into single spool half-inch tape.