I noted in a recent Storage Newsletter that the number of vendors of LTO tape cartridges has now consolidated into two: FUJIFILM and SONY. TDK, and Maxell, we’re told, have left that market.While JJM, the editor at Storage Newsletter, spins this news against the typical “tape is dead or dying” narrative preferred by most of his advertisers in the disk and flash worlds, he also grudgingly notes that the disk world now has only three suppliers to meet the capacity requirements of a much much bigger capacity demand.Why not just call it what it is: improvements in automation and delivery, and the dynamics of a competitive market, means that fewer consolidated companies are better situated to provide supply than a crowded field of suppliers engaging in cutthroat marketing (see Flash market). The latter scenario leads inevitably to implosion — and a lot of customers left high and dry with flash products that are no longer supported.Good reason, that, to deploy DataCore SANsymphony-V R10 to preserve the value of your flash investment!SONY has made some confusing claims this week about a new high capacity tape technology enabled by an entirely new kind of tape. I say confusing because they have stated different capacity ratings at different times over the last week. The Register has documented a claim that the new tape will deliver 148 Gb per square inch, but SONY has been using other numbers, both higher and lower than Lain Thompson reported, over the course of the week. The question isn’t how much, but when. Some observers say we are at least 10 years away from GA on a product, assuming that one is developed.Some may recall that Hitachi Maxell and Tokyo Institute of Technology demonstrated a nano-structured magnetic film using facing targets sputtering methods for media coating that they claimed would deliver 50TB per cartridge. But no products were ever developed.So far, FUJIFILM has been the winner of the “put your money where your mouth is” award with its BaFe cartridge technology. In 2010, they demonstrated with IBM a BaFe Type II LTO cartridge with 32 TB of capacity. Thus far, the technology has only been implemented on Oracle/Sun/SDK tape cartridges, the T10KD, to provide 8.5 TB of storage uncompressed. But BaFe has demonstrated its capabilities in tape products ranging from the Linear Tape Open (LTO-6 BaFe) and IBM 3492 JC/JY media, confirming that this coating is more stable and resilient and storage capable than prior metal particle tapes. I am hearing that work is proceeding on BaFe Type III even as Type II media is being rolled out that will deliver even higher capacities. Watch this space.As you know, I will be attending IBM Edge 2014 in a couple of days. I hope to get with some of IBM’s tape guys to find out what the announce date will be for the new TS1150 and whether they will be able to beat Oracle on price, availability and capacity. I also want to know what refinements have been made in Linear Tape File System (LTFS) and what IBM is seeing in terms of uptake in that technology.Part of the reason for my interest in tape, besides the practical challenge of bending the storage cost curve, is the green thing. I am not a climate science denier and, living in Florida near the Gulf, I am concerned about the impact of rising sea levels and weather’s increasingly aggressive profile. My view of the green stuff that folks talked about a couple of years ago was that it turned into a bit of a joke. Every storage vendor who wanted to help you green your data center was actually trying to sell you something else to plug into the wall!From where I’m standing, the greenest piece of IT hardware is the delete key. Storage is, after all, the biggest power pig in most data centers, so it makes sense that if we could utilize capacity more efficiently and host data where its access and retention requirements could be best served — code for moving a lot of static content off spinning rust and onto tape and optical — we could slow the acquisition of additional disk arrays and help reduce carbon footprint.I am not deceiving myself, however. All storage media production processes are energy intensive and therefore NOT green. But I was delighted by this bit of news that came across the transom a couple of days ago. Seems like FUJIFILM is trying to green some of its manufacturing as well — installing solar panels on its FRMU facility in Bedford, Massachusetts. Here are a couple of photos from that event.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony are FUJIFILM executives and politicians, including U.S. Congressman John F. Tierney (D) 6th District Massachusetts, Consulate-General of Japan in Boston, Akira Muto, and Bedford Town Manager, Richard Reed. Here is the complete info from FUJIFILM’s PR rep:Pictured (L-R): Suguru Enomoto, Vice President of Finance, General Affairs and Treasurer, HLUS; Toshi Yamamoto, Vice President Manufacturing, FRMU; Richard Reed, Bedford Town Manager; Chris McCarthy, Vice President, Columbia Construction Company; Peter Faulhaber, President, FRMU; Mike Ortolano, President, Absolute Green Energy Corporation; U.S. Congressman John F. Tierney (D-Massachusetts); Consulate-General of Japan in Boston, Akira Muto; Shig Sano, President, HLUS; and Yasufumi Nakai, Senior Manager, Environmental and Quality Management Department, CSR Division, FUJIFILM Corporation (Tokyo)Here is a shot of the solar panel farm. Neato! Now I have yet another reason to feel satisfied with myself for buying green storage solutions like magnetic tape.