Optical's Costs and Uncertainties Driving SMBs to RDX-based Solutions
Optical media's 100 year life span earns it top marks among all media from a longevity perspective. But as optical media's cost per GB soars and manufacturing ranks thin, its future looks dismal at best. In its place, removable disk technology (RDX) makes a strong case for small and midsized businesses (SMB) to use it in lieu of optical.
Optical became the de facto standard for many SMBs in the last 20 year as an affordable means to store scanned documents and compliance related data. These reasons included:
However the benefits of optical also laid the foundation for its demise. While its random access performance is better than tape, it still falls far short of disk that limits the number of applications that can benefit from optical.
This resulted in optical development stagnating. Even now, nearly 20 years after its introduction, a single-sided optical platter only offers 30GBs of capacity even as other media offers a TB or more of capacity.
This lack of innovation has become particularly problematic as of late. While the price of an individual optical media platter has stayed roughly the same, its price per GB has soared when compared to RDX and tape cartridges.
A popular computer retailer's website illustrates this price disparity. A 30GB Write-once UDO (Ultra Density Optical) platter currently retails for ~$65 while a 30GB read-write UDO lists for ~$75.
While these per platter costs sound reasonable, the cost per GB of these platters works out to $2.17/GB and $2.50/GB respectively. It is these costs that result in optical being much more expensive than competitive removable media. By way of comparison, RDX cartridges are already down to $.25 per GB (a 1TB cartridge lists for $255) while tape is down three (3) cents per GB (a 1.5TB LTO-5 cartridge costs ~$48.)
Even if one ignores the cost of optical, other factors are working against its continued use. Many optical disk library manufacturers are already out of business which brings into question whether or not this technology will even be readily available in 10 years much less in 100 years. Further, as manufacturers have gone under, it brings into question, "Who will support optical?" and "What does the long term roadmap for optical media look like?"
These reasons coupled with the ever-widening gap in the cost per GB between optical and competitive removable media (disk and tape) almost dictate that SMBs examine disk and tape more closely to see it either one is a viable replacement for optical.
Disk versus Tape as Optical Replacements
RDX and tape compare favorably in a number of areas. Both offer cartridges with capacities in excess of 1TB so they require less frequent handling/replacement than optical.Both are rated to last for at least 30 years. Both offer WORM to preserve the integrity of data stored on them.
The advent of RDX allowed disk to close a gap in a couple of areas that once existed between it and tape - most notably in the areas of portability and infinite scalability. Now SMBs may move and scale disk in the same way that they could with tape.
The main benefits that each one offers over the other are the same as they have been historically. Tape continues to have an edge on cost per GB while RDX edges out tape in performance when randomly accessing data. This then raises the question, "Which media is best positioned to replace optical?"
RDX Gets the Nod
Tape is still not a viable replacement for the same reasons as before: tape does not offer satisfactory performance when randomly accessing data. Conversely disk offers much better performance than either tape or optical. This coupled with its availability as RDX gives it a decided advantage over optical in the areas of:
Cementing the argument that RDX is the most logical replacement for optical is the growing number of platforms based on RDX. The Imation InfiniVault exemplifies this new generation of storage products.
The Imation InfiniVault presents itself as NAS target so no special software is needed to either store or access information on it. Further, the InfiniVault Model 70 already scales to over 100TBs in a small footprint and at a fraction of the cost of optical. Achieving this same 100TB threshold using optical would require over 3,000 UDO platters at a much higher cost, a larger physical footprint and provide slower response times.
The Imation InfiniVault also includes its VaultCenter software that addresses the specific compliance and storage optimization concerns that SMBs may have. It includes support for DICOM so SMBs may safely store, distribute and view medical data. It includes storage tiering so data may be stored on online, offline or offsite storage media.
Its WORM feature ensures that data may be securely stored. Finally, it provides for automated file retention and expiration so SMBs may confidently store data and then delete it when it is no longer needed.
The Time to Replace Optical with RDX Solutions Has Come
Optical made sense back in the day. However technologies come and go and the time to use optical media for their sensitive and compliance-related data has come and gone for most SMBs. In its stead, a new, better technology in the form of RDX has emerged.
SMBs have enough to worry about without having to deal with the escalating costs and uncertainties associated with optical. RDX affords them this better alternative by eliminating the costs and uncertainties that have come to be associated with optical. RDX addresses these SMB concerns with its lower costs, higher performance and more viable roadmap.
Optical became the de facto standard for many SMBs in the last 20 year as an affordable means to store scanned documents and compliance related data. These reasons included:
- Acceptable performance. Optical offers better performance than tape as it can more quickly randomly access data.
- Economical/cost effective. Optical scales incrementally by adding individual platters (more capacity.) This approach saves on upfront capital costs plus it requires no power and no specific heating and/or cooling requirements.
- Long lasting. Optical is the most durable media rated to last over 100 years.
- Space efficient. Optical only needed a fraction of the floor space of the floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets that they often replaced.
- Well-suited for compliance. Optical is available as WORM (write once read many) media which provides off-the-shelf compliance for SMBs.
However the benefits of optical also laid the foundation for its demise. While its random access performance is better than tape, it still falls far short of disk that limits the number of applications that can benefit from optical.
This resulted in optical development stagnating. Even now, nearly 20 years after its introduction, a single-sided optical platter only offers 30GBs of capacity even as other media offers a TB or more of capacity.
This lack of innovation has become particularly problematic as of late. While the price of an individual optical media platter has stayed roughly the same, its price per GB has soared when compared to RDX and tape cartridges.
A popular computer retailer's website illustrates this price disparity. A 30GB Write-once UDO (Ultra Density Optical) platter currently retails for ~$65 while a 30GB read-write UDO lists for ~$75.
While these per platter costs sound reasonable, the cost per GB of these platters works out to $2.17/GB and $2.50/GB respectively. It is these costs that result in optical being much more expensive than competitive removable media. By way of comparison, RDX cartridges are already down to $.25 per GB (a 1TB cartridge lists for $255) while tape is down three (3) cents per GB (a 1.5TB LTO-5 cartridge costs ~$48.)
Even if one ignores the cost of optical, other factors are working against its continued use. Many optical disk library manufacturers are already out of business which brings into question whether or not this technology will even be readily available in 10 years much less in 100 years. Further, as manufacturers have gone under, it brings into question, "Who will support optical?" and "What does the long term roadmap for optical media look like?"
These reasons coupled with the ever-widening gap in the cost per GB between optical and competitive removable media (disk and tape) almost dictate that SMBs examine disk and tape more closely to see it either one is a viable replacement for optical.
Disk versus Tape as Optical Replacements
RDX and tape compare favorably in a number of areas. Both offer cartridges with capacities in excess of 1TB so they require less frequent handling/replacement than optical.Both are rated to last for at least 30 years. Both offer WORM to preserve the integrity of data stored on them.
The advent of RDX allowed disk to close a gap in a couple of areas that once existed between it and tape - most notably in the areas of portability and infinite scalability. Now SMBs may move and scale disk in the same way that they could with tape.
The main benefits that each one offers over the other are the same as they have been historically. Tape continues to have an edge on cost per GB while RDX edges out tape in performance when randomly accessing data. This then raises the question, "Which media is best positioned to replace optical?"
RDX Gets the Nod
Tape is still not a viable replacement for the same reasons as before: tape does not offer satisfactory performance when randomly accessing data. Conversely disk offers much better performance than either tape or optical. This coupled with its availability as RDX gives it a decided advantage over optical in the areas of:
- Capacity. A 1TB RDX cartridge offers as much capacity as 35 30GB UDO platters.
- Cost. 35 UDO platters will cost at least $2300 with optical costs staying the same or even going up. The cost of RDX technology is only going down with a 1.5TB RDX cartridge already as low as $294 (20 cents per GB) and, as larger capacity RDX cartridges become available, its per GB cost should only drop further.
- Longevity. While the 100 year rating for optical media is still better than the 30 year life that the RDX Alliance found RDX cartridges to possess, the probability of being able to affordably and confidently read data from disk in 30 years is much higher than optical.
- Removable. RDX affords disk the same portability and scalability features as optical.
- Secure. RDX provides the same WORM capabilities as optical.
- Technology roadmap. Disk is an established and proven storage technology with 2, 3 and 4TB internal hard disk drives (HDDs) already shipping. This puts it slightly ahead of tape and well ahead of optical. Further, it is logical to conclude that these larger HDDs capacities will be available in RDX cartridges in the near future.
Cementing the argument that RDX is the most logical replacement for optical is the growing number of platforms based on RDX. The Imation InfiniVault exemplifies this new generation of storage products.
The Imation InfiniVault presents itself as NAS target so no special software is needed to either store or access information on it. Further, the InfiniVault Model 70 already scales to over 100TBs in a small footprint and at a fraction of the cost of optical. Achieving this same 100TB threshold using optical would require over 3,000 UDO platters at a much higher cost, a larger physical footprint and provide slower response times.
The Imation InfiniVault also includes its VaultCenter software that addresses the specific compliance and storage optimization concerns that SMBs may have. It includes support for DICOM so SMBs may safely store, distribute and view medical data. It includes storage tiering so data may be stored on online, offline or offsite storage media.
Its WORM feature ensures that data may be securely stored. Finally, it provides for automated file retention and expiration so SMBs may confidently store data and then delete it when it is no longer needed.
The Time to Replace Optical with RDX Solutions Has Come
Optical made sense back in the day. However technologies come and go and the time to use optical media for their sensitive and compliance-related data has come and gone for most SMBs. In its stead, a new, better technology in the form of RDX has emerged.
SMBs have enough to worry about without having to deal with the escalating costs and uncertainties associated with optical. RDX affords them this better alternative by eliminating the costs and uncertainties that have come to be associated with optical. RDX addresses these SMB concerns with its lower costs, higher performance and more viable roadmap.
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