DLT vs AIT

[mantislee]

Researching company's new Backup solution. Looking for a few opinions on Quantum DLT's vs Sony's AIT format. Major points that I know now:

1. AIT is faster
2. AIT is cheaper
3. DLT has a proven record for reliablity
4. In reference to #3 this proven record has been proven for years and years now (time for new technology?)

Any opinions are appricated.
Thanks, Mantislee
Systems Administrator
mantislee@yahoo.com

 

[DeanA]

Another point to consider:

AIT writes to the tape using a helical (diagonal) stripe so it completely fills the part of the tape it has written to. The tape only passes the write head once as it is written to.

DLT writes one stripe from start to finish, then drops down a row and writes a stripe back to the beginning so the tape passes the write head several times before the tape is full. It's called "shoe shining". I've heard that this can cause data loss since the magnetic coating on the tape may come off.

AIT's approach doesn't do this.

 

[bjverzal]

At a previous employer, we went through a DLT to AIT conversion.

AIT wins hands down. Sony has laid out plans for AIT generations through AIT-5 I believe. Each new version will have double the previous version in terms of capacity and speed. We never had a tape go bad, the hardware compression is incredible (136GB on a 72GB tape, Oracle database).

At my current position however, we have opted for LTO, as it provides even higher speed and capacity.

Hope this helps.

Bill.