[Techtalk] Tape backup/library recommendations

[Linda Mayhugh]

> I am currently pricing tape backup and/or tape library solutions for my
> employer, and I need to find something both reliable and inexpensive
> (low thousands of dollars).  I need about 60GB of capacity, so a 35/70
> DLT tape drive is probably OK.  It needs to work on either a Linux
> server or a Sun SPARC of one sort or another (we have many).  
 
What I've just bought for work are a couple of VXA's. They're 8mm tape 
drives made by Ecrix, which has been bought by Exabyte (you may find them 
listed under either name). There are tapes of various lengths available, 
from 12GB/24GB to 33GB/66GB for the VXA-1 drive and 80GB/160GB for the 
VXA-2 (which also takes the shorter tapes as well). They come with 
firewire, ide or scsi connectors.

They're being marketed more to Macintosh users but also support Linux. And 
their marketing crew knows who they are aiming these things to - one of 
the endurance tests the tapes were subjected to was to drop them in hot 
coffee. 

Since the ones here are new I can't speak to their longevity except that 
they rated very well in the various places I checked. According to the 
manufacturer the tapes are supposed to last 10 times longer than DAT and 
the drives are supposed to be highly durable as well.

As to places to buy them, I used www.cdw.com.

Good luck,

Linda M