EMC targets magnetic tape storage market

For years, big companies have used magnetic tape for data backups, because tape is much cheaper than large banks of hard drives. Now EMC Corp. of Hopkinton is going after the magnetic tape market with a new hard-drive array that it claims will provide a superior alternative.

The Clariion Disk Library is designed to work exactly like a tape storage system, so that customers won't have to make major changes in the way they back up data. But instead of storing files on tape reels or cartridges, the data will be stored on the same type of inexpensive hard drive used in desktop computers.

Chuck Hollis, vice president of storage platforms marketing at EMC, said the Clariion Disk Library, with an entry-level price of $109,000, or $450,000 for a typical 32-terabyte installation, is still 40 to 50 percent more expensive than an equivalent amount of tape storage. But the price gap has narrowed, as engineers have found ways to cram ever more data onto cheap hard drives.

"Disks are more expensive than tape, both from a capital perspective and an operating perspective, but the gap has been closing somewhat," said storage analyst John McArthur of International Data Corp.

Besides, disk storage systems offer vastly superior speed, allowing companies to back up and restore data in a fraction of the time required by a tape system. "It's not cheaper; it's faster and it has high data availability," said Hollis.

The new disk library gives EMC a competitive weapon against companies like IBM Corp. and Storage Technology Corp. These rival data storage companies make both disk and tape drive systems, while EMC doesn't produce tape drives. EMC will position the Clariion device as a replacement for tape systems used for short-term data backups -- a $2 billion market, said Hollis.

For instance, a company doing weekly incremental backups of vital data could carry out the process much more quickly. Hollis said the use of a disk drive-based system would also cut labor costs, since companies wouldn't need as many "tape jockeys" -- workers who spend their days loading and unloading tape cartridges from the drives.

But tape will continue to dominate in long-term storage of data not needed for day-to-day operation of the business. In such cases, it's still far cheaper to copy the information to tapes, which are then stored in a secure location.

"Tape is not going away," said IDC's McArthur.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.