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Address
Spectra Logic Corporation
6285 Lookout Road
Boulder, CO
80301
Telephone: +1 303 449 6400
Email: sales@spectralogic.com
Website: www.spectralogic.com
Case Studies
Spectra Logic Protects Critical Biomedical Research Data
The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, a part of the Novartis Research Foundation, Relies on Spectra T950 Tape Libraries for Scalable, High-Density Archiving
BOULDER, Colo.—March 9, 2010—Spectra Logic, celebrating 30 years of data storage innovation, today announced that the Switzerland-based Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), a part of the Novartis Research Foundation, is relying on two Spectra® T950 tape libraries to archive and backup critical biomedical research data.
As a research institute, FMI exploits cutting edge research technology for biomedical research. FMI scientists are at the forefront of biomedical discovery, and are using high-throughput sequencing and microscopy experiments that can produce terabytes of data from a signal experiment. As a result, more than 10TB of new data is written to the Spectra Logic tape libraries each week in the form of new data or backups.
“Data volumes are doubling approximately every two years, so scalability is extremely important to us,” said Dean Flanders, chief information officer, FMI. “With Spectra Logic’s libraries we can easily scale by simply adding frames. We know our investment is protected and that our archiving and disaster recovery infrastructure will grow with us.” To accommodate its growing storage needs, FMI selected the Spectra T950 tape library to archive data automatically from disk-based primary storage. With the Spectra T950 solution, FMI can easily scale its storage capacity with the addition of up to seven additional frames, which would store more than 10PB of data.
After the initial implementation of the Spectra T950, FMI implemented a second T950 at a disaster recovery location. The second T950 stores an additional copy of the data from the initial T950 library. In the event of a significant incident or disaster affecting FMI’s primary data center, it is able to automatically shift from its normal disk staging to staging directly from tape at either site. The Spectra implementation has transformed FMI’s disaster recovery capabilities, enabling the IT team to bring terabytes of data back online in a matter of minutes.
“We are impressed and happy with the density and cost-effectiveness of the Spectra Logic offering,” added Flanders. “Innovation in tape is what Spectra Logic does extremely well, and we have grown very comfortable with entrusting our critical data to the Spectra Logic tape libraries.”
The full case study of the FMI implementation can be found at http://spectralogic.com/fmi.
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About the Spectra T950
The Spectra T950 enterprise-class library is designed and built to meet the stringent requirements of the enterprise for data integrity, data security and high reliability. The T950 library simplifies management, reduces staff media handling time by 90 percent, scales in throughput and capacity, and supports multiple generations of tape and disk options. Support options range from the expected 24x7 worldwide onsite support as well as advanced options, such as the efficient Assisted Self Maintenance (ASM) option and proactive reporting and diagnostic tools for greater uptime.
About Spectra Logic Corporation
At Spectra Logic we define, design and deliver innovative data protection through tape, deduplication and disk-based backup, recovery and archive storage solutions. By igniting innovation we challenge expectations of the data protection market with intelligent, integrated, and simple to use backup and archive technologies. Throughout our 30-year history we have delivered high-density, feature rich storage with unmatched service and support to customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.SpectraLogic.com.
About the FMI
The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), based in Basel, Switzerland, is a world-class center for basic research in life sciences. It was founded in 1970 as a joint effort of two Basel-based pharmaceutical companies and is now part of the Novartis Research Foundation. The FMI is devoted to the pursuit of fundamental biomedical research. Areas of expertise are neurobiology, growth control, which includes signaling pathways, and the epigenetics of stem cell development and cell differentiation. The institute counts 320 collaborators. The FMI also offers training in biomedical research to PhD students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world. In addition the FMI is affiliated with the University of Basel. The Director of the FMI since 2004 is Prof. Susan Gasser.
FMI.pdf 191.84 kB
Whitepapers
The Market Applicability and Business Value of Spectra Solutions
Introduction: Back to the Future?
A Perfect Storm
Tape storage is still a vibrant market with a product-set that delivers enormous value. It has long been fashionable
to talk of the demise of the technology (words usually uttered by those that do not offer or understand the
products!), but a continuing multi-billion dollar market belies this. Indeed, the current market ‘wind’ can be seen to
be blowing in favor of tape in certain ways—the demand for low cost, ‘green,’ high capacity, tiered storage being
key. This ‘market wind,’ when combined with Spectra Logic’s1 own efforts, has created a ‘perfect storm’ of
opportunity for the company, which is one of the most experienced vendors in the business. The company has put
itself in a strong position to capitalize on its window of opportunity—it has remained debt-free, has been able and
indeed anxious to invest in new features and markets, has garnered some excellent ‘named’ users, and has
emphasized its service capabilities. There is, however, also an extent to which the market is moving towards tape in
general and hence, towards Spectra.
Too often, longevity in IT is linked with declining value; yet tape steadfastly remains a multi-billion-dollar business,
with—arguably—more relevance today than it has had for at least a decade. Spectra offers great storage density as
well as advanced functionality and reliability; its current tape systems and data protection offerings are as far
removed from old-fashioned tape as today’s SAN and NAS disk systems are from the days of the first RAMAC. Tape
in general—and Spectra in particular—offers a lot for users to get excited about.
Spectra – Tape and Disk
Spectra is a privately-held storage company based in Colorado, which has been a hub for the tape industry
dominated by IBM and StorageTek (now Sun, and maybe to become Oracle) as well as a number of smaller
companies. Spectra has been in business for 30 years, has over 300 resellers, and is enjoying growth in its key
businesses even in the current down economy. The ‘how and why’ of this success, and why Spectra is poised for
further growth, are due in equal measure to the generic ‘rediscovered’ value of tape in today’s market as well as
the specific values and solutions that Spectra delivers—and these two aspects are the focus of this paper. Indeed,
part of Spectra’s advantage is that it has not stuck doggedly to just tape; market opportunities and technological
advances demand that disk be a part of the solutions Spectra offers and it has done just that. It offers features such
as deduplication and encryption, alongside its industry-leading storage density and TCO. The net-net of this
combination is that Spectra can offer real solutions and help to IT managers who are constantly being asked to
balance many competing cost, capacity, and efficiency challenges.
Market Applicability and Business Value Spectra Logic.pdf 143.30 kB
Products
T-Finity
The T-Finity’s modern design provides a tape archive and backup solution to fully meet the needs of the enterprise IT, federal government, high performance computing, and media and entertainment markets, offering industry-leading scalability with the speed necessary to meet the requirements of the most data-intensive environments in the world.
The T-Finity advantages reach far beyond the necessary high performance and high capacity requirements of data-intensive storage. T-Finity redefines what customers should expect from modern tape archive and backup solutions, with unmatched features and significant CapEx and OpEx savings. The modern design saves customers up to 30% on the initial capital investment and 15-20% on annual recurring operational expenses.
T950
For data archive, backup and recovery, this elite library leads the field in innovation—from the greatest storage density to proactive media management always protecting your data. This library has done it all first.
Features at a Glance
Scale up to 10,050 tape slots
Add as many as 120 drives
Cascade up to eight frames with a single robotic mechanism, increasing reliability and lowering costs
Supports mixed media; of any combination of LTO and SDLT
Controller-based (QIP) connectivity, supporting Fibre Channel or Fibre Channel Direct connect drives.
T-Series T200/T380/T680
Data growth is endless, and cost-effectively scaling storage is becoming a top priority for businesses and operations worldwide. Keeping up with unpredictable data growth is a daunting task.
Organizations want to avoid making capital investments in storage that are far beyond their short-term capacity requirements, yet they must be prepared for the unexpected. Designed with your growth in mind, Spectra TranScale has been developed to preserve your initial investment in storage by providing a solution that addresses both your short-term and long-term storage needs.
Spectra uses TranScale in our Mid-Range T-Series libraries by interchanging the expensive components between the T200, T380 and T680 libraries. As you grow, you continue to use your original tape drives, power supplies, TeraPacks and media in your new library. The frame is the only major component that changes when you are ready to upgrade to a larger T-Series library. TranScale provides a cost-effective lifetime investment in storage, allowing you to scale your hardware, software and training to make your capacity upgrades quick, seamless and affordable.
Spectra T-Series Mid-Range Libraries can:
•Start with 50 tape slots and scale up to as many as 680 slots.
•Scale up to as many as 12 drives.
•Don't stop there. With the TranScale architecture, you can upgrade to a larger T-Series Library and preserve your investment by continuing to use the expensive library components. Interchange the:
•Power Supplies
•Drives
•Interfaces (QIPs)
•TeraPacks
•Support mixed media, within a single enclosure, of any combination of LTO and SDLT tape technologies.
T120
The Spectra T120 library is easy to use, manage, and maintain. Installation and configuration is quick and simple, and component redundancy ensures the highest of reliability. Highly flexible, the T120 allows you to start with the features you need now, and add features and capacity as your data grows and backup requirements change.
T50e
The T50e offers you advanced LTO-5 tape technology, powerful library management functionality, increased security through our integrated BlueScale® Encryption, plus a range of support options to complement your requirements. With more innovative features than other libraries in its class, the T50e easily stands out in front. It's just a better library.
