Overland Introduces Low Cost Automated Dual Drive LTO Solution

Overland Storage has announced a new dual drive LTO automation product aimed at the extended-functionality loader market. According to the company, the new PowerLoader product establishes a new class of automation product for the high performance and high capacity LTO tape format, providing many of the features normally found in competing automation systems that cost far more.

Available in a choice of either one-drive or two-drive models, the PowerLoader can be purchased in both rack-mount and tabletop versions. A second drive can easily be field added to an existing one-drive unit. Providing protection for up to 3.4 terabytes of compressed data, Overland says that the unit is ideal for users whose application supports tape copy or cloning to a second drive for off-line archiving, as well as for individuals just beginning to deploy automated tape backup in their organizations.

“Our new PowerLoader resets the bar in LTO automation,” said Bob Scroop, vice president and general manager of Overland’s storage resource business unit. “End users are no longer faced with a hard choice between low priced loaders, which have limited functionality, and libraries that deliver the desired functionality but at a substantially higher price.”

Designed for workgroup servers and networks, Overland’s says that the PowerLoader includes features typically found in much higher priced automated storage solutions. These features include dual-drive support, barcode scanner, a single easy-to-remove tape magazine and optional Web-based monitoring and control capabilities.