A new breed of hard disk arrays are aimed at either complementing tape drives by improving backup speed or replacing tape altogether.

Such systems come in two flavors. Disk to disk backup subsystems cater to companies looking to either back up data exclusively to disk, or back up the data to disk as an interim step before sending it to tape later. Disk to disk to tape subsystems come integrated with a tape backup system or are designed to be easily integrated with tape.

Disk based backup arrays are not displacing tape for the most part, said Robert Abraham, president of research firm Freeman Reports. "In some cases, they do, but they really make tape backups more user-friendly, and so they make it easier to use tape," he said.

Actually, disk based backup arrays make users more likely to back up to tape, Abraham said. Instead of tape sales falling, the latest Freeman report on compact tape drives, which include cartridge, DAT, 8mm, SAIT, DLT, SDLT and LTO drives, said shipments are expected to hit 2.2 million units this year, up 5.2 percent over last year. By 2009, the market is expected to hit 2.9 million drives.

Source: CRN