Sixth Annual WILD Summit Inspires Women at Spectra Logic

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Breakthrough. This was the theme of the 2018 Women in Leadership Development (WILD) Summit that took place on Thursday, April 26, at the Colorado Westin Westminster. The event was designed to inspire through stories of real women, accomplishing real things, in our world. The conference was attended by over 900 mostly women business owners, professionals, entrepreneurs, and students.

Break through what, you might ask? Norms, ceilings, molds – anything and everything getting in the way of women moving ahead and into leadership positions in their life and work. Speakers and panelists opened up about their own personal and professional breakthroughs. The morning panel with Katica Roy, CEO and co-founder of Denver-based Pipeline Equity, was a highlight for Jenny Mahoney, business intelligence developer at Spectra Logic. “I was very happy to hear Katica comment on what I consider the ‘missing link’ in most efforts around gender equity: support of men in traditionally female roles,” says Mahoney. Pipeline leverages artificial intelligence to help businesses operationalize gender equity and drive economic gains. Katica shared data points and insights validating the positive correlation between gender equity and revenue performance and dispelling the myth that women leave work because of motherhood. read more

View of Modern Data Migration

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Is the data or digital content you’re writing, creating, or capturing going to last longer than the media it’s written on? The majority of every organization that works with such information or content will answer, “Yes.”

That means the information will have to be moved from the original technology it’s stored on to a newer technology – welcome to ‘data migration’. The life of disk drives in production is roughly three to four years. LTO tape cartridges have a shelf life of 30 years, but requires a tape drive capable of reading the tape media 30 years later. As data and digital content become ever more important in our modern society, so does the need for a modernized approach to data and content migration. read more

The Role of Multi-Tier Storage in High Performance Computing Environments

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Marketing Program Manager, Spectra Logic

Multi-tier storage for High Performance Computing HPC Banner

Our society is currently undergoing an explosion in digital data that shows no sign of slowing down. The volume of data created each day has increased immensely and will continue to grow exponentially over time, especially in high performance computing research environments. Where should organizations store their data and what is the best way to manage it? Sure, short-term fixes are appealing due to their easy implementation, but often worsen long-term storage challenges associated with performance, scalability and cost. It is essential to consider future needs when examining storage options. read more

A Look at the Latest Developments in Tape Technology

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Betsy DoughtyBy Betsy Doughty, Spectra Vice President of Corporate Marketing

The Tape Storage Council , of which Spectra is a founding member, released their annual memo, “Tape Raises the Bar for Higher Capacity, Reliability, and Security” this week. It highlights what is new in the world of tape and what these advancements mean for the greater data storage market. The Tape Storage Council is a collaborative industry group dedicated to promoting current tape industry trends, usages and technology innovations. read more

Maximum Flexibility in a Stackable Configuration

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For nearly 40 years, Spectra Logic has been on the forefront of innovation in tape storage. Today, Spectra continues the trend of offering products that address the need for affordable storage in industries with exponential data growth with the announcement of the Spectra® Stack Tape Library.

The Spectra Stack strikes the balance between flexibility, scalabilty, and affordability in a way that makes it perfect for organizations that don’t just view data storage as an obligation, but see it as a duty to preserving information that contributes to the success of their businesses and markets. read more

Massive Data Management without Friction – Komprise and Spectra Solutions

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Krishna Subramanian
COO, Komprise

We all know the story – data growth is exploding, but IT budgets are staying flat. Customers realize that storing and managing all data on primary storage is not sustainable – especially since the amount of data managed is typically 300%+ of the amount created (for 1TB of data stored, it is 3TB to 6TB managed – 1TB source, 1TB mirror/disaster recovery and 1 to 3TB backup copies).

Since 80%+ of this data is cold/inactive, by moving the cold data and its management to a cost-efficient secondary storage such as Spectra’s BlackPearl® Converged Storage System, businesses can typically save 70%+ on storage costs.
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Innovation through Software, Part 2 of 2
 BlackPearl’s Multi-Interface Support

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As the centerpiece of a modern workflow, Spectra’s BlackPearl® Converged Storage System’s multi-interface support capabilities improve performance and scalability of storage solutions, while facilitating front-end access for users through software multi-tenancy features. By leveraging existing certified client partners like MediaFlux, or self-developed Customer Created Clients, BlackPearl can incorporate a multitude of storage interfaces into a single, user-friendly point of access.

BlackPearl combines object storage with a RESTful server interface to consolidate cache, tape, online, nearline, and public and private cloud storage. This hybrid ecosystem allows BlackPearl to merge different classes of media in the most efficient way possible, migrating data off different tiers per configurable policies based on frequency of use and value. For instance, Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is the only format that BlackPearl uses to write to tape because it is an open-standard way to exchange data across different operating systems and software. While this flexibility provides a cost-effective alternative for tiered content storage and deep archive, LTFS technology mimics a file-based storage, presenting the same performance limitations of traditional file systems. By using a RESTful interface, BlackPearl solves common file-based issues like time-outs and errors/failure when sharing data between servers. Furthermore, the cache management of BlackPearl is optimized for tape. Storage policies enable BlackPearl to stage the initial storage of the objects in its cache, and plan how it will store the data on tape, allowing for higher throughput in the system and maximizing efficient use of space in the repository. read more

Innovation through Software, Part 1 of 2 BlackPearl’s Cloud-Out Feature

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A cloud initiative is now widely recognized as an essential part of a genetically diverse storage strategy. In previous blog posts, we’ve discussed the importance of incorporating on-premise copies (When the Cloud is Out of Order, Are You?), storing to multiple locations, and making use of backup, restoration, and replication methods (Comparing Data Resiliency and Data Protection) to achieve resilient and protected data with a cloud initiative. This week’s blog will explore how the Spectra® BlackPearl® Converged Storage System’s hybrid cloud storage model allows data to move seamlessly into disk, tape and cloud storage in a way not previously possible. read more

Automating Data Management with the Combined Spectra and StrongBox Solution

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Floyd Christofferson
SVP, Products, StrongBox Data Solutions

Spectra invited StrongBox Senior VP of Products Floyd Christofferson, to discuss the attributes of the StrongBox and BlackPearl Solution.

How does the StrongLink® solution work?

StrongLink leverages the power of metadata and machine learning to deliver the first solution to truly automate storage and data management across multi-vendor storage environments. StrongLink is not limited by a particular filesystem or storage vendor ecosystem but can bridge multi-vendor environments with a policy-driven management layer to automate and simplify all aspects of data management, data protection, storage resource management and more. read more

Demystifying LTO-8: Part IV

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Part four of our “Demystifying LTO-8” blog series covers Spectra Certified Media and the benefits of implementing it within your data center.

Why Spectra Certified Media?

  • Media has variability. Multiple vendors produce raw media and while there are standard LTO specifications, there is still variation. EVERY PIECE of Spectra media is individually tested, unlike other vendors who do batch testing and claim to certify “an entire truckload of media.” There is often variation within batches and Spectra believes the only way to guarantee the reliability of its media is to test every piece individually.
  • Vendors have variability. Over time, different vendors provide media that varies. Spectra tests every media option and only uses the best available raw media as the basis for Spectra Certified media. This ensures customers only receive the most reliable media on the market.
  • Spectra has higher standards than anyone. A base LTO specification is in place and media vendors are required to at least meet the minimum. Only Spectra Certified media guarantees the reliability needed for “forever archives.”
  • Spectra Certified Media is Carbide cleaned. This ensures maximum drive life and media longevity. Rough media is extremely hard on the heads in a tape drive. CarbideClean removes manufacturing residue present on all media and doubles the life of tape drives.
  • Spectra Certified Media is directly integrated with Spectra libraries for continuous monitoring. Buying the best media at the beginning is not enough. Media has a tough life with countless mounts, spooling, read/write, verifications and sometimes rough treatment from environment or the library itself. The ONLY way to monitor the health of your media is through the exclusive Spectra Media Lifecycle Management [MLM].
    • Initialization – At initial test, 40+ unique health statistics are sent to an RFID chip on the tape.
    • Monitoring – MLM statistics on Spectra Certified Media are continuously tracked by the Spectra Library for overall tape health. Data is easily accessible through the library BlueScale interface.
    • Alerting – When the library identifies tapes that are at risk, the user is immediately notified so actions, including data migration to a new tape, can be initiated. Identifying statistically problematic tapes before they fail and data loss occurs saves customers millions of dollars.
    • Ongoing scanning – Drive Integrity Verification as well as “quick” and “full” scan options allow administrators to periodically sample both tapes and media on a periodic basis and get ahead of issues before they arise.
    • Spectra Certified Media is guaranteed for life – Unlike other vendors who have a 90-day or couple-year warranty, Spectra stands behind its media and guarantees it forever.

    Bottom line, Spectra Certified media saves you money and provides unparalleled data protection… After all, isn’t that why you are using tape in the first place?

    This concludes our four-part “Demystifying LTO-8” blog series. If you haven’t had a chance to read parts one, two and three, visit our blog page on our corporate website. Also, look for the hashtag #LTO8FAQ on social media for other blogs from the series. read more