Storage Adviser | Mario Apicella » Dell jumps on the RDX train too

November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Dell jumps on the RDX train too

TAGS: Protocols and Technologies

"Looks like Prostor is doing something right" - was my opening line for a conversation with Steve Georgis, CEO of ProStor Systems. "We certainly hope so" - Georgis joked in response.

Of course Mr. Georgis and the management team at ProStor know very well what they are doing right, which is defining the technical framework for what promises to be the most serious contender to tape drives for small and medium business.

"Our strategy at ProStor has been to really create the first true multi vendor standard for removable disks backup and archive products. ProStor is the company doing the design and we are licensing others to do the manufacturing"- Georgis explains.

The RDX (removable disk extendable) standard defines the characteristics of the cartridge, built around a 2.5" SATA drive, and of its drive bay.

The cartridge includes a layer of shock absorbing material that makes the drive able to survive a fall from 1 meter (a little more than 3 feet), even over a hard surface like concrete.

That protective layer shields the cartridge also from electrostatic discharge, but should a cartridge become damaged, users will immediately notice because an embedded alarm led, usually green, will turn red after the initial diagnostic cycle.

Today the RDX cartridge is available in 40GB, 80GB and 120GB, but future larger capacity cartridges will mount seamlessly in the same drive bay. Also interesting is that cartridges from different vendors are compatible, which is an undeniable advantage over single branded solutions such as Quantum GoVault and Iomega REV

With a promised transfer rate of about 30MB/sec, higher for larger drives, SMB customers should get backup and restore speeds that they couldn't probably afford on tape drives.

The drive bay has also some interesting characteristics, with software than monitors the health of the cartridge and a 1 million hours MTBF. Prostor estimates a 13 years lifespan at full duty cycle, and a 10 years shelf life for RDX.

Tandberg Data, one of the first adopters, have been shipping products for some time. In fact, I have one of their RDX drives in my lab, but I haven't dropped the cartridge yet to prove how it can survive a fall.

About one month ago Imation became also interested in RDX and should begin shipping their first drives soon.

Which brings me finally to yesterday's announcement from Dell that will soon begin shipping an external USB version and an internal SATA version of RDX.

Is RDX the beginning of the end for the tormented entry-level tape drives segment?

Possibly, but mounting one cartridge at a time may not be fun if a backup is larger than the drive capacity. I wouldn't be surprised if an RDX autoloader will get to market next year.

Posted by Mario Apicella on November 9, 2006 12:38 PM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: