Quantum unleashes more robots on tape libraries

Quantum is doubling up the robotics in its i6000 Scalar tape library to increase reliability.

The i6000 is Quantum's high-end library, supporting up to 5,332 tape cartridges. Like other libraries it uses a robotic system to move tape cartridges from slots in the library to drives. If the robot fails then the library fails and cartridges can't be moved; it is a single point of failure. A second robot will be added in the second half of this year, fixing this vulnerability.

High-end libraries from Oracle (StreamLine) and SpectraLogic (T-Finity) already support dual robotics.

Quantum is also adding support for the key manager interoperability protocol (KMIP) v1.0 to both the i6000 and i500 products later this year. It says, "KMIP is an encryption key management standard that will enable the implementation of a centralised key management strategy for customers looking to centrally manage keys. They will be able to attach their Scalar libraries to any KMIP-compliant key management device."

The i6000 supports data path failover and FIPS-validated encryption and these two features will also be added to the i500.

The company says it has now shipped more than 35,000 Scalar libraries to customers. ®