Spectra helps customers modernise IT architectures

“With a vast number of people around the globe working remotely during the coronavirus crisis, IT infrastructures are being stretched to capacity like never before,” said Spectra CEO Nathan Thompson. “Organisations must brace for this new paradigm and optimise their infrastructures to remain competitive. StorCycle alleviates the strain placed on the Primary Tier of storage by finding less active data and moving it to a Perpetual Tier where it is accessible and protected for the long term. This can help organisations accelerate IT efficiencies right away.”

StorCycle Storage Management Software

Interoperable with Linux or Windows, StorCycle 3.0 scans primary storage for inactive files and migrates them to a lower cost tier of storage, called the Perpetual Tier, which includes any combination of cloud storage, object storage disk, network-attached storage (NAS) and object storage tape. Users also can migrate entire completed data sets, such as machine-generated data, scientific output and finished videos, with the Project Archive method. This reduces the amount of data on expensive primary storage, shrinking backup windows, increasing overall performance and reducing the need for additional primary storage.

Spectra BlackPearl Object Storage Platform

To help customers modernise their IT infrastructures, Spectra enhanced the functionality of its popular BlackPearl Object Storage platform, further advancing its capability to manage multiple storage technologies, including cloud, disk and tape. Recent BlackPearl enhancements include:

• Improving BlackPearl 40U rack density on BlackPearl object storage disk to 15.4PB and on BlackPearl NAS to 16PB using ultra-dense 16TB hard drives and 107-bay 4U expansion nodes
• Modernising storage workflows by enabling customers to migrate seamlessly from legacy middleware to BlackPearl and to newer technologies with BlackPearl
• Enabling cloud services workflows by writing full objects to S3 cloud-out targets

LTO-9 Tape Technology Pre-Purchase Programme

To help customers prepare for the next-generation of LTO tape, Spectra now offers an LTO-9 tape technology pre-purchase programme. This programme enables customers to receive the latest generation of LTO tape drives as soon as they are available. Spectra provides pre-purchase customers with LTO-8 tape drives now, and upgrades its customers’ tape libraries with LTO-9 drives when they become available, with no additional purchase required. LTO-9 is expected to ship in the fall of 2020.