Benchmark Bets DIT1 Will Replace DDS.Its new half-high drive fits the DDS (1) (Digital Data Storage) See DAT. (2) (Data Dictionary System) See QuickBuild and OpenDDS. (3) (Dataphone Digital S form factor...Surprise! Benchmark Tape System's motto is "DLT (Digital Linear Tape) A magnetic tape technology originally developed by Digital for its VAX line. The technology was later sold to Quantum, which makes it available to other manufacturers. DLT uses half-inch, single-hub cartridges similar to IBM's 3480/3490/3590 line. for the rest of us (abuse) for The Rest Of Us - (From the Macintosh slogan "The computer for the rest of us") 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced products. 2. ." It might as well be "DLT for the DDS of us," as the product is clearly meant to displace-and replace-DDS. Now that major manufacturers are not going forward with a DDS-5, this should be good news for DDS's primary market, networked servers in small-to medium-size business and individual high performance workstations with a backup speed of over 20GB. Benchmark is also pushing the product's autoloader to a large portion of this market that has not been using backup products because autoloaders have been nonexistent non·ex·is·tence n. 1. The condition of not existing. 2. Something that does not exist. non or unreliable. Benchmark And DDS Gartner Dataquest chief analyst Fara Yale said, "The basis for any tape technology to successfully penetrate the DDS space requires three key components: price, equal or greater capacity/performance, and form factor. Any competitor to provide all of these in one offering will start to make the case for DDS market transition." In response, Steven Berens, Benchmark's executive director of marketing said, "The right price, right capacity, right form factor-this is the magic mix that made the DDS right for the market, and what will make the DDS's successor right for the market." Hoping to prove that case, Benchmark has recently introduced DLT technology's first half-high DLT1 tape drive. It has a 5.25-inch form factor and offers 40GB uncompressed capacity and a 3MB/sec native transfer rate. The half-high DLT1 is read-compatible with the DLT1, LT4000, and utilizes DLTtape IV media. This drive (not coincidentally co·in·ci·den·tal adj. 1. Occurring as or resulting from coincidence. 2. Happening or existing at the same time. co·in ) is the same size form factor that fits DDS. Benchmark plans to initiate the qualification process with OEMs for the half-high DLT1 during the first quarter of 2001 (Fig 1). Benchmark has clearly positioned the product to take DDS' place-but can it? DDS users don't all fit the same profile, though they can be divided into three distinct groups: 1. DDS disciples-They are perfectly happy with DDS now, usually have DDS-3 already installed and plan a comfortable upgrade path to DDS-4. There is plenty of extensibility for now, with DDS-4 slated to ship well into this decade. 2. DLT seekers-They're satisfied DDS users, but prefer a longer migration path for their tape drive needs. They're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. DDS reliability, capacity and price points, and automation solutions don't hurt either. 3. DDS refugees-They're unhappy with DDS's eventual demise, undecided about alternatives, and concerned with form factor and availability of automation solutions. DLTl 's half-high form factor and automation options appear to be driving a lot of this group towards DLT1. The Benchmark picture isn't perfect. Its performance suffers in comparison with other products in its market range, such as Sony's AIT line. Still, the company is clearly ahead in the DDS replacement space, beating out competitors Ecrix and Onstream by its deals with server giants Dell and HP. Benchmark And DLT Existing DLT users prefer backward compatibility See backward compatible. (jargon) backward compatibility - Able to share data or commands with older versions of itself, or sometimes other older systems, particularly systems it intends to supplant. for reassurance and to justify previous investments, but this does not drive the purchase. Performance, capacity and price do. DLT1 acts both as an introduction to DLT in small to medium businesses, while larger businesses might use DLT1 in new and remote offices, as a way to integrate and standardize stan·dard·ize v. 1. To cause to conform to a standard. 2. To evaluate by comparing with a standard. their existing DLT installations at a lower cost. Along with good price/performance metrics metrics Managed care A popular term for standards by which the quality of a product, service, or outcome of a particular form of Pt management is evaluated. See TQM. , the DLT1 has backward compatibility with the DLT 4000 format, and its standard DLT command set will work with popular backup software See backup program. (tool, software) backup software - Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. packages. The tape drive offers a reliable, value-priced backup for mission-critical data. It has a 40GB native capacity and 3MB/sec uncompressed transfer rate. The Benchmark DLT1 drive is available as an internally configured unit and as a self-standing enclosed en·close also in·close tr.v. en·closed, en·clos·ing, en·clos·es 1. To surround on all sides; close in. 2. To fence in so as to prevent common use: enclosed the pasture. unit. It also has improved mechanical features for reduced field returns and a reasonable migration path to the future DLT2 (Fig 2). Benchmark is busily pursuing more OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and deals as it seeks to position DLT1 as both DDS' replacement and as a scalable, entry-level option to DLT. Check Out our website for a complete listing of DLT vendors:www.wwpi.com Fig 1 What is DLT1 Displacing? Other 3% New 35% 8mm 11% DLT4000 10% Travan 7% DDS 34% Source: Benckmark Note: Table made from pie chart [Graph omitted] |
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