Mark Schoonover wrote:
> Cost is another factor. An Exabyte LTO3 1x7 loader is MSRP $6500,
> with 20 tapes $1130 in a pack. My 4TB backup server cost just under $5000 at
> the time, cheaper today. Then, you have the daily admin of flipping tapes.
> Disks run without intervention once configured, and it's nice to have
> especially if you have employees working over the weekends, or on holidays.
>
HP's version of that same LTO3 1/8 autoloader is around $5000 street
price (sometimes under $4500). The Quantum OEM version
("Superloader") is about the same.
of course, 20 LTO3 tapes is 16 terabytes. and you can have another 16
terabytes in archive for another $1100 or whatever. That 1/8
autoloader holds 8 of them, which is 6.4 terabytes online with no
operator intervention required until it comes time to ship a box of
tapes to the offsite vault.