How does the ARCHIVEMANAGER work?

The user sees a standard Windows or Linux file system in their network which means that the archive can be used immediately without any need for adaptation.

In principle, the ARCHIVEMANAGER manages an unlimited number of files on practically any type of storage system or component. The file system is located on a so-called performance disk. Data is initially written to this performance disk, however, pointers or indicators mean that even after the data has been migrated to an archive disk or magnetic tape, it is still transparent and visible.

Cost-effective SATA disk systems can be used as archive media or LTO-based magnetic robot tape library systems. For security reasons, generally two – or up to four – copies of all data are saved. The ability to flexibly select the storage media used is one of the strengths of the ARCHIVEMANAGER. So, for example, two copies can be archived locally on disk and tape, with one or more copies archived remotely on disk and/or tape. This ensures the optimum combination of access speeds, security and cost-effectiveness.

Magnetic tape systems are, in the long-term, likely to remain the most cost-effective archive medium, in particular, due to the extremely low operating costs (energy consumption). In addition, magnetic tape systems also have the additional option of deploying WORM (Write Once Read Many) tapes to ensure the greatest possible security requirements.

With very large archives – 50 TB and upwards towards the petabyte region – it makes sense to use tiered storage concepts. Sufficiently large disk archives are installed to ensure rapid access to recently saved data or to data from the last few years. Additional capacity is made available on magnetic tapes only. For older data which is accessed very rarely, a longer load time is generally acceptable. A second copy, stored either locally or remotely, can be used to ensure the necessary data security.