Which is the best Mid Range Tape Library (LTO4) in the market??? Thank you

[apple]

Dear Tape Library Gurus,
Could you please advice me, what is the best brand for mid range tape library (LTO4). is that HP (HP MSL6060), overland (LXN4000),Dell (Dell PowerVault ML6000) and Quantum (Quantum Scalar i500 Mid-Range). what is the best thing to look at their product? we have our requirements, but want to get good guiding principals and best practise to assess their product. do you have gartner report or white papers that can help me? really looking forward for your awaiting respond. Will promise to get good points to your awaiting reply. Thanks a lot.

-Finas-

[Luk Vandenbussche]

The first import issue..

Is it supported by your backup software.

Here you find the supported libraries by
dataprotector

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00766445/c00766445.pdf

[Torsten.]

There are more mid range libraries with LTO4 available:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/tapestorage/business_class/index.html

The question (aside the essential support by the software) is: what is "best"?

Management, #of drives, #of slots, best price ...

One point I would consider:
If you have the server and the software from only 1 provider, why not get the lib from the same? This make life easier in case of support. Imagine a problem between OS, server, software and library - how many different sources of potential support can you handle?

[apple]

That's why... ermm.. currently in our environment we have overland and hp..
I've tried to find a gartner or forrester report on tape library.. do you know who lead this thing? highest rank? it's bit difficult to find the key strenght in the specification proposed since most of them looks standard.. may be the price differentiator will play.. but it's good to go for the best rite.. erm.. hope to hear from you Guru..

[apple]

dear tape library gurus,
which one is the best, super DLT or LTO?
i'm a new bie, please provide me with tips on how to best benchmark of tape library product in the market. hope to hear from you

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

DLT is essentially a dead technology. Go with LTO.

Cheers,

Rob

[Wei Jung]

I have found this Storage selector very nice, easy and useful to determine how to choose your device, you can go for capacity/transfer rate/type of interface etc, easily.

Just go checking your options and the selector will narrow out the ones for you.

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/productselector/index_tape-cframe.html?psn=storage

Unfortunately I do not know much about the devices from Overland or Dell, so that part will be up to you.

Since you have Overland and HP, you are the most qualified to determine which one has provided you the best backup solution.

[apple]

meaning, we gotta to evaluate the backup device and also the backup software. do we have ways to evaluation independently of each other. will us be getting the good comparison if we just compare the hardware level only? hope to hear from you