Exabyte Announces Native Fibre Channel LTO Tape Library

Exabyte Corporation announced today availability of the latest addition to Exabyte’s Fibre Channel library product offering — the 221L LTO Ultrium tape library with a native Fibre Channel interface (221L-FC).

The 221L-FC is the first in a family of Exabyte native Fibre Channel LTO libraries designed to provide IT professionals with a technically superb, high-performance data storage solution optimized for use in SAN applications.

With a native Fibre Channel interface to both the robotics and the LTO tape drives within the library, the 221L Fibre Channel library eliminates the need for an internal bridge or router, bypassing a costly single point of failure in network backups. Performance bottlenecks are also eliminated because each drive attaches directly to the RAID devices in the SAN. The native Fibre Channel implementation also supports greater distances and simplifies the attachment of tape storage solutions in networked storage applications. The result is a more reliable, faster backup and restore operation, saving users valuable time and money.

The 221L native Fibre Channel library integrates LTO Ultrium Fibre Channel tape drives sourced from IBM. Like Exabyte, IBM has demonstrated its leadership in the SAN storage initiative by being the only LTO drive vendor to supply native Fibre Channel drives. “IBM will effectively support Exabyte with Fibre Channel technology,” said Glen Allen, Program Director of OEM Tape Storage Marketing for IBM. “The industry exclusive IBM Fibre Channel LTO Ultrium tape drive offers unparalleled connectivity and performance advantages for tape storage solutions.”

“The combination of the native Fibre Channel library with native fibre LTO Ultrium drives provides enterprise-level performance and reliability at a remarkably affordable price. This product is a nice fit for multi-terabyte full backups and smaller, incremental SAN-backup needs,” commented Jim Campbell, Exabyte’s SAN Alliance Manager.

The 221L tape library with native Fibre Channel is backed by Exabyte’s Professional Installation Program, ensuring optimal performance and connectivity of the library within today’s complex SAN environments.

Accommodating up to 21 cartridges and 2 LTO Ultrium tape drives, the 221L library manages up to 4.2 TB of data at transfer rates of 216 GB/hour. Occupying just 5U of rack space, the 221L combines high performance with a compact design. Standard features include field upgradable tape drives, barcode scanner, remote management capability and a secure entry/exit report. The 221L is available in both LVD SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. For users with lower capacity and performance requirements, Exabyte also offers the 110L LTO autoloader.

Exabyte is the first library manufacturer to have brought to market native Fibre Channel libraries for mid-range applications. The 221L with native Fibre Channel joins an entire family of Exabyte Fibre Channel libraries, including the 430, X80 and X200 M2 tape libraries. Exabyte native Fibre Channel libraries are aimed at providing users with an unbeatable combination of high performance and reliability, along with industry-leading density and affordability.