By Phil Wandrei
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Spectra Logic
While cloud storage, disk, and flash drives are popular data storage solutions, magnetic tape remains an unbeatable option for long-term data preservation and archiving. Thanks to its cost-effectiveness and durability, tape remains one of the most reliable methods for keeping data safe for decades to come. But not all tapes are created equal. When it comes to high-quality tape media, Spectra Certified Media takes things to the next level.
Why Tape Still Matters
So, why choose tape? While cloud and flash storage have their place, tape remains a preferred choice for long-term, large-scale data storage. Tape offers the best TCO, usually by a factor of 5-10x when compared to disk or cloud for preserving massive amounts of data. Additionally, because tape is stored offline, it’s naturally immune to cyber threats like ransomware. This “air gap” provides an added layer of security against malicious attacks.
Another advantage is energy efficiency — tape only uses power when accessed. This makes it an eco-friendly, cost-saving solution for organizations with large-scale storage needs.
Spectra Certified Media for Peace of Mind
At Spectra, we’ve worked with tape for over 40 years. During this time, we’ve refined our certification process to ensure you receive the most reliable media possible. Spectra Certified Media doesn’t just come with a lifetime guarantee — it bundles all the traditional value of tape with a higher level of management, durability, and insight. Our solution surpasses all other manufactured tapes, giving you peace of mind. Spectra Certified Media benefits include:
- Highest and most consistent media performance and capacity
- Optimal tape drive write times due to fewer rewrite errors
- Extends the life of tape drives and media
- Saves valuable staff time initializing LTO-9 media
- Investment protection with a Spectra Lifetime Guarantee*
Spectra Certified Media offers worry-free data protection with the highest-quality LTO and IBM TS11XX media, as well as cleaning media.
The Spectra Certified Media 7-Step Process
We’ve designed a comprehensive 7-step process to ensure your tape works perfectly from day one. Here’s how we do it:
- Environmental Acclimation
To start, tapes spend 24 hours acclimating in our climate-controlled lab. This step prepares them for use in any condition, ensuring reliability no matter the environment.
- Barcode Tagging
Tracking your media is simple with custom barcodes. Forget dealing with duplicate labels or missing tags — each tape is labeled for easy management from the moment you receive it.
- Initialization and Calibration
For LTO-9 media, we take an extra step to optimize its large capacity. Our initialization process saves you up to 30 minutes per tape, making data placement quicker and more accurate.
- Proprietary Cleaning
Brand-new tapes are often contaminated with debris from the manufacturing process. Our exclusive cleaning process removes this residue, improving performance and extending the lifespan of both your tapes and tape drives.
- Read/Write Verification
Every tape undergoes a complete read/write cycle to ensure it meets our strict standards. This step helps us gather essential metrics, ensuring your tapes perform at peak efficiency - Write Metrics to Memory
Each tape is equipped with an RFID chip, known as Media Auxiliary Memory (MAM). We write over 40 data points to this chip, allowing for seamless media tracking and reporting.
- Final Inspection
Before any tape leaves our facility, it undergoes a final inspection to ensure it meets our high standards. Once it passes, it’s ready to safeguard your data.
The Power of Media Lifecycle Management (MLM)
When used in Spectra tape libraries, Spectra Certified Media comes with the added benefit of Media Lifecycle Management (MLM) software, which enables easier monitoring of your tapes. MLM tracks the health of each tape and assigns a status — green for good, yellow for caution, and red for replacement — so you know precisely when a tape needs attention. This proactive tracking helps prevent failures, reduce unexpected downtime, and keep your data workflows running seamlessly.
Lifetime Guarantee
We’re so confident in our Certified Media that we back it with a lifetime guarantee.* If any Spectra Certified Media tape ever fails, we’ll replace it, no questions asked. This kind of peace of mind is priceless when it comes to data storage.
The Trusted Choice
Spectra Certified Media is more than just tape. It’s a comprehensive solution for secure, cost-effective, and reliable data storage.
With our 7-step certification process, you can trust that each tape is designed to perform optimally. Coupled with Media Lifecycle Management and a lifetime guarantee, you’ll have everything you need to protect your data for the long haul.
Whether you’re safeguarding large volumes of data or looking for a cost-effective storage option, Spectra Certified Media is the perfect choice for organizations that prioritize performance and peace of mind.
Read the Spectra Certified Media brochure for more information.
* Spectra Certified Media coverage does not extend to tape media or cleaning media that have naturally worn out due to deterioration resulting from routine operations, standard wear and tear, or reaching the end of their functional life. Customers should follow recommended usage guidelines and replacement schedules to maintain optimal performance.
