Quantum Ships Only Tape Automation Platform That Delivers Superior Investment Protection And Flexibility For Dynamic IT Environments
Quantum Corp. (NYSE:DSS), a global leader in storage, today announced the immediate availability of its PX500 Series, a new modular tape automation platform designed to provide unique flexibility and scalability choices that deliver superior investment protection. It is the only midrange automation family that enables customers to meet current and future scalability requirements within a platform, with far less complexity than current products, and at no additional cost. Customers can now more easily address expanding data growth, consolidate or distribute storage systems, meet regulatory compliance demands or combine disk- and tape-based solutions as the foundation of a tiered storage model.
The PX500 Series – consisting of the PX502, PX506 and PX510 – offers independent rackmount systems of 4U, 10U and 18U (rack-unit) to meet customers' mission-critical data demands from the workgroup to the data center. The systems are based on a common, modular architecture that allows customers the flexibility to mix and match rack density, capacity and performance, best meeting backup, recovery and archive needs today and into the future at an unmatched cost per gigabyte (GB).
"Capitalizing on the significant R&D investments we've made, Quantum is launching the largest number of products and services in our history this year," said Rick Belluzzo, chairman and CEO of Quantum. "With the introduction of the PX500 Series today and innovative new tape devices and disk-based systems to come, customers can be assured that in the area of backup, recovery and archive, ‘Quantum's got you covered.' We're not only continuing to provide exceptional reliability, superior price/performance and comprehensive service and support but also delivering new value-add features at no additional cost."
Today's IT climate demands systems that can adapt to changing environments. Supporting this fact, Quantum has found that a significant percentage of its customers reassign or redeploy their automation systems in the first few years after purchase. Quantum designed its unique and patent-pending FlexLink™ scalability architecture, a unique pass-through mechanism built into every PX500 Series system, to match customers' diverse and changing needs by enabling simple and easy scaling or descaling of the PX500 Series systems on demand. This innovative approach negates the need for external hardware or cabling and instead uses infrared and self-alignment technology for communication and set-up between units. Moreover, units can be added or removed in minutes with no additional hardware or cabling, and without taking the entire system offline. Most significantly, this benefit is provided at no additional cost.
The three distinct systems of the PX500 Series – the PX502, PX506 and PX510 – are tailored for customers to standardize their tape-based backup, recovery and archive on a single platform. Designed for serviceability, each library has its own robotics and power for independent operation. Taking advantage of this design, Quantum's intelligent Web-based management console allows customers to learn only a single interface to monitor and manage multiple PX500 Series systems either as single libraries or as one entity that can continue operating even if an individual unit is down. Additionally, all PX500 Series systems utilize the same drive canisters, cartridge magazines and other key components to minimize parts and reduce complexity.
The PX500 Series offers unmatched rackmount density and a cost per gigabyte 20 to 40 percent lower than competitive offerings. And customers may choose among the leading high-performance tape drive options – SDLT 600, LTO-2 or LTO-3. The PX500 Series brings enterprise-class features normally associated with higher-priced enterprise standalone libraries to a wide range of customers. These features include hot swappable drives, redundant power supplies, mixed media and drive support, and SCSI or Fibre Channel connectivity.
"Quantum has made significant new investments in its PX500 Series tape automation platform," said Robert Amatruda, research manager, tape and removable storage of IDC. "The PX500 Series tape libraries provide customers scalable capacity, critical redundant components and the ability to redeploy the libraries long after the initial sale."
Additionally, the new tape libraries leverage Quantum StorageCare™ Guardian, a secure, remote monitoring and diagnostic solution that utilizes the intelligence inside the PX500 Series management console to proactively monitor the health of the units, predict possible failures and determine whether or not a problem involves Quantum systems or other components.
PX500 Series: Building Blocks to Solve Data Protection Challenges
The PX502 is designed for workgroup, departmental and remote office automation and is a 4U, 2-drive library with up to 38 slots per chassis. It offers over 15 terabytes (TB) of native capacity and native performance of up to 576 GB per hour. The PX502 delivers about twice the capacity and density of similarly positioned competitive offerings and is the only library in its class to offer enterprise-class features such as optional redundant power and mixed media support within each system.
The PX506 is designed for large, data intensive workgroups, departments and data centers and is a 10U, 6-drive library with up to 100 slots per chassis. It provides 40 TB of native capacity and native performance of up to 1728 GB per hour. Compared to similarly positioned competitive offerings, the PX506 delivers about 40 percent greater capacity and 40 percent greater density at a very low acquisition cost and is the only library in its class to offer mixed media support within each system.
The PX510 breaks the 10 cartridge per rack-unit density barrier as an 18U library designed for larger, mission-critical data center environments. It offers up to 10 tape drives and up to 201 slots per chassis with native capacity of over 80 TB and native performance of up to 2880 GB per hour. The PX510 delivers more than 20 percent greater density than the nearest competitive offering and an acquisition cost of up to 40 percent less.
PX500 Series Availability
Quantum is currently shipping the PX502, PX506 and PX510 through the company's network of channel and value added reseller partners.
About Quantum
Quantum Corp. (NYSE:DSS), a global leader in storage, delivers highly reliable backup, recovery and archive solutions that meet demanding requirements for data integrity and availability, with superior price/performance and comprehensive service and support. Quantum offers customers of all sizes an unparalleled range of solutions, from leading tape drive and media technologies, autoloaders and libraries to disk-based backup systems. Quantum is the world's largest volume supplier of both tape drives and tape automation and has pioneered the development of disk-based systems optimized for backup and recovery. Quantum Corp., 1650 Technology Drive, Suite 800, San Jose, CA 95110, (408) 944-4000, www.quantum.com.