Sony Ait-3, Sdx3-100c Tape Format’s Performance And Efficiency Compared With Close Rival Lto1 Tape

By Author: Frank Miller
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Power failures, hackers, system crashes, software bugs and viruses can erase the entire data from your system hard disk or affect the data integrity. Such occurrences can result in permanent failure of business or lost revenue. Most importantly, organizations also have to comply with the Government’s data retention laws that enforce them to preserve data for longer time durations.

The best practice is to create data backup and afterwards, store it at a remote site so that the data is protected against on-site destruction, unauthorized access and common human errors such as inadvertent data erasure, over-writings etc.

Sony’s innovative AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) hit the market in 1996, and since then has solidified its position as a leading backup tape standard for small and mid-sized organizations. AIT technology is fast enough to support the modern business applications and demanding data centers, whereas the exceptional compactness makes it the foremost choice of many space-constrained companies.

Sony AIT3 tape solution outperforms other competing tape technologies due to its fast backup speed ...
... and superior operational efficiency. AIT3 backup system is well-suited for financial organizations, complex networks, SMBs, government agencies, workgroup backups and remote offices. The most important benefit of AIT3 format is the enhanced data compression capability.

Let’s compare it with its close rival LTO 1 tape. Both LTO1 and AIT-3 tape feature 100 GB native capacity. But when the data compression functionality is applied, the capacity of LTO1 extends to 200GB and that of AIT3 reaches up to an exceptional 260 GB. WORM (write once, read many) functionality also has been incorporated in Sony AIT3 format to help customers meet the stiff mandates of industry & government regulations. Part numbers of Sony AIT 3 tapes are SDX3-100W (WORM cartridge) and SDX3-100C (rewritable cartridge). So the customers have more choice and the specific needs can be efficiently satisfied at a greater value.

Sony has designed a highly robust base film, which helps to maintain superior data accuracy under high duty cycles and reliably store the data for up to 30 years. Thanks to the reduced tape tension and ultra-smooth storage medium, the Sony AIT3 tapes can be used for up to 30,000 full backups.

Sony AIT 3 drives feature single-ended LVDS and ultra160 SCSI interfaces, thus providing excellent support to the modern computing systems. In native mode, the data transfer speed achieved by Sony AIT3 tape drive is 12 Mbps. Good news is that the data access and media loading times are also superior to other technologies. AIT-3 drive takes only 10 seconds to load the media, whereas the fast data access time of 27 seconds helps to keep pace with the modern backup software and database applications. During offsite transportation, there is a high risk of tapes being damaged due to bumps and shocks. That’s not true for Sony AIT 3 tapes. They are extremely robust, thus allowing safe storage at remote sites.

Product and software names mentioned throughout this article are trademarks and are sole property of their owners.

Frank Miller is the Marketing Manager of Backuptape and markets LTO 1 tape and SDX3-100C. He has vast experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping buyers who have the backup needs and guide clients about the technology.

Frank Miller
3984 Washington Blvd #503 Fremont CA 94538
Tel: 888-686-8273
Fax: 888-449-5050
Email: sales@backuptapes.net