Features - Storage Innovations:

QUANTUM ANNOUNCES DLTSage MANAGEMENT SUITE

Quantum Corp, a leading provider of data protection systems, has announced DLTSage, a new architecture-based suite of predictive and preventive diagnostic offerings that will enable customers to more simply manage their tape storage environments. Compliant with industry standard specifications, DLTSage is designed to eliminate the guesswork and uncertainties of managing data protection systems by providing the information necessary to better manage, predict and proactively prevent storage system errors.

Designed to assure IT managers that backups are being completed successfully and data integrity is uncompromised, DLTSage establishes a new threshold for tape reliability and ease of management. If failures do occur, DLTSage's predictive and preventative advanced diagnostics are designed to quickly identify the problem, speeding system recovery processes. DLTSage puts the "Power of Knowing," a unique reliability portal into the hands of the customer. The DLTSage suite will ship with all future Super DLTtape solutions at no additional charge, beginning with the SDLT 600 tape drive this year, but DLTSage firmware and software are now available to download for existing Super DLTtape products.

"A focus on making data protection more manageable will be a key initiative of companies that wish to be leaders in the future," said Fara Yale, research vice president with Gartner Dataquest. "Customers are looking for knowledgeable and intelligent offerings that are self-managing and prevention-focused. Self-healing solutions will be pivotal in the next phase of data protection."

"The introduction of DLTSage delivers upon Quantum's commitment to provide our customers with rich, reliable data protection solutions that maximize the long-term value of their DLTtape investments," said George Kreigler, senior vice president and general manager, Quantum DLTtape Group. "DLTSage puts never-before-realized knowledge capabilities and proactive management control in the hands of IT administrators, establishing a new era of enhanced reliability for tape storage systems."

Manage, Predict and Prevent

DLTSage allows users to better understand and control how tape drive units are used throughout the enterprise. IT personnel can develop a complete inventory of drives and media and their associated utilization statistics to ensure the integrity of valuable data. With the DLTSage application software, IT managers are relieved of the burden of predicting and assessing which tape media and drives are being used to their maximum potential and which tape drives and media have reached their critical thresholds of effective use.

Intelligent Management -- Smart Drives

One of the highest business values of DLTSage is its ability to proactively predict and prevent potential backup failures. Preventative maintenance protocols are developed by the intelligent management software, which determines where errors are likely to occur, monitors utilization and automatically takes corrective measures to ensure the reliability of the tape storage environment.

"Customers looking for greater reliability and better management of their backup and data protection solutions absolutely need to evaluate DLTSage," said Nancy Marrone-Hurley, senior analyst with The Enterprise Storage Group. "Quantum is the first company to provide this level of manageability support, and the intuitive software applications are delivering true innovation to the tape market."

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Commit Support for DLTSage

As networked storage environments continue to grow in size and complexity, ISVs are turning to solutions such as DLTSage to simplify tape storage systems and provide greater manageability and reliability within their customers' IT environments. Prominent ISVs including Arkeia Corporation, CommVault Systems, Computer Associates, Legato and VERITAS have committed support to DLTSage, in order to provide their customers and their field engineers the diagnostic tools to rapidly diagnose and optimize tape storage environments.

"As storage managers grapple with growing complexities, they will require increasingly sophisticated diagnostic and management capabilities," said Gary McGuire, senior vice president of BrightStor solutions at Computer Associates. "The kind of monitoring and alerting provided by DLTSage complements the end-to-end management that CA's BrightStor Enterprise Backup provides for today's heterogeneous storage environments, giving managers an extremely robust and reliable data protection solution."

"Intelligent diagnostics tools like DLTSage that simplify the complexities of tape storage management will resonate among our customers, who want greater control of their data storage environments," said Larry Cormier, vice president of marketing with CommVault Systems. "Quantum's DLTSage complements the integrated, ease-of-management vision of our QiNetix platform and Galaxy software and will help our own field engineers more rapidly analyze tape and drive issues and improve system uptime."

"Both VERITAS NetBackup and VERITAS Backup Exec customers will benefit from greater control and simplified management of tape storage environments with DLTSage," said Bob Maness, senior director of product marketing, VERITAS Software. "The diagnostic management tools in DLTSage make it easier and faster to analyze tape and drive issues for joint customers concerned with reliable backup and recovery of their data protection systems."

Linux-based network backup and data protection solution providers have also supported DLTSage to help them simplify the tape storage management found within more complex heterogeneous networked environments.

"DLTSage's ability to provide greater visibility, control and preventative management capabilities for tape storage systems is the type of application support that Linux and UNIX systems administrators are demanding," said Arnaud Spicht, chief technology officer of Arkeia Corporation. "Our Enterprise Network Backup customers and our Arkeia support team will truly benefit from the greater reliability and intuitive manageability that DLTSage will provide."

The DLTSage Suite of Software Application Agents Deliver Across Multiple Protocols

The initial debut of DLTSage will include the following application agents for managing tape storage within different operating environments:

• DLTSage xTalk -- Provide host-based diagnostics for all operating environments communicating using SCSI, Fibre Channel and other supported interfaces
• DLTSage iTalk -- Communicate with all elements of customer environments with tape drive systems to obtain status information and issue commands via infrared (IR) links. A pocket version of DLTSage, iTalk will obtain drive information and send commands using a pocket PC and IR connection.
• DLTSage eTalk -- Enable Web-based management to be included in future releases to convey drive and media information

Removing Complexity and Easing Manageability Supported By Partners

Leading automated tape library providers ADIC, Overland Storage and Quantum's Storage Solution Group have committed support for DLTSage. DLTSage's proactive media and drive wellness capabilities are expected to deliver higher customer satisfaction and lower service costs, which can translate into improved sales margins for OEMs.

"Next generation storage systems will derive a major part of their value from their ability to gather and analyze data, and to turn it into action," said Scott Roza, vice president of North American Storage Products at ADIC. "ADIC's new iPlatform libraries, like the Scalar i2000, deliver this capability today -- turning system status information into email and pager alerts and advanced diagnostics. Not only is ADIC excited about the new level of drive and media information that DLTSage will provide, but we are working closely with Quantum to make sure that our intelligent libraries can take advantage of it immediately to provide real value to our customers."

"DLTtape drives with the DLTSage diagnostics within our Neo Series libraries and Powerloaders will provide the reliability and ease of management our customers are looking for," said Bob Scroop, vice president and general manager of the storage resource business unit of Overland Storage. "DLTSage provides greater assurance that critical data is protected and available when needed. Especially powerful is the ability to implement DLTSage with SDLT 320 drives in the field."

"DLTSage's ability to simplify the management of tape backup systems will benefit the full spectrum of our customers, from small business autoloader customers to our largest enterprise library customers," said Rob Pickell, vice president of worldwide marketing for Quantum's Storage Solutions Group. "With its advanced management features, DLTSage enhances the intelligence already built into Quantum's automation products to offer customers peace of mind through the assurance of worry-free operation."