Spectra Logic Intros Capacity on Demand Tape Libraries

, a manufacturer of high density tape libraries for data protection and backup, today announced its Capacity on Demand service that allows customers to immediately activate additional capacity in their tape library as their storage needs grow.

Spectra Logic’s Capacity on Demand eliminates guesstimating about data growth curves and future storage needs, which saves time, value and money, company officials said.

Now customers can initially purchase a tape library fully populated with tape slots, but only pay for what their current backup needs require. When ready to increase capacity, customers just make a call or log on to Spectra Logic’s Web site, pay for the upgrade key and Spectra Logic “ships” the key by e-mail instantaneously.

“As data accumulates, storage managers are faced with predicting future capacity requirements for backup,” said Bill Reed, vice president of marketing, business development. “With Capacity on Demand, our customers no longer have to wait for capacity upgrades or purchase excess capacity and grow into it over time. This service enables our customers to reduce initial storage costs and devote less time to planning for future requirements.”

Spectra Logic customers can purchase 15 slot packages that deliver one and a half Terabytes of storage at a time, when they need it. Capacity on Demand will be shipping with the Spectra 12000 and 64000 tape libraries in December and the remaining tape library product line in January 2002. With Capacity on Demand, customers can more closely match library capacity to their immediate needs. This reduces initial purchase costs and enables customers to save up to 70 percent on subsequent capacity additions to their Spectra Logic libraries.

Specific pricing details were not available.