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Okay, this is beyond silly. Still ignoring tape. Explain how BDXL, a new format, which has never proved itself beyond a few years, which costs $45 for a few hu

by batbomb 13y ago

Okay, this is beyond silly. Still ignoring tape. Explain how BDXL, a new format, which has never proved itself beyond a few years, which costs $45 for a few hundred GB, which AFAIK has very little data on re-writability (which is probably terrible and close to one-time use) could be any more profitable or reliable, or useful than tape. I don't buy it. Tape would be the logical short-term choice to get started, because Amazon could just go buy an off-the-shelf tape library and add tape as they needed from Oracle, versus again, engineering their own BDXL library on the expectation that it would cost less than tape, taking into account factors such as: 1. Reliability and degradation 2. Supply 3. Cost 4. Reusability/Re-Writability

dmourati 13y ago
Not tape. http://www.zdnet.com/amazon-launches-glacier-cloud-storage-hopes-enterprise-will-go-cold-on-tape-use-7000002926/ http://www.zdnet.com/amazon-launches-glacier-cloud-storage-h...
- batbomb 13y ago
  No, it doesn't definitively say the backing storage is not tape based. Only that: "Essentially you can see this as a replacement for tape," and: "inexpensive commodity hardware components" Nowhere did they explicitly deny that it may be tape-backed. In addition, From the article: Instead, Glacier runs on "inexpensive commodity hardware components", he said, noting that the service is designed to be hardware-agnostic. Which may allude to the fact that the backing storage itself may be flexible (a combination of HDD, Tape, possible BDXL) The author himself only acknowledges: This suggests the system will be based on very large storage arrays consisting of a multitude of high-capacity low-cost discs. Which isn't definitive in the slightest. Also, the article is over 18 months old. I've said it before, I wouldn't be terrible surprised if they got started with old commodity hardware to get started, but the economics and characteristics of tape still seem much more amenable to the use case.
  - dmourati 13y ago
    "Replacement for tape" is tape? OK.
    - VintageCool 13y ago
      "Essentially you can see this (our tape) as a replacement for [your] tape".
  - dkoch 13y ago
    "Asked what IT equipment Glacier uses, Amazon told ZDNet it does not run on tape."

by batbomb 13y ago

dmourati 13y ago

Not tape. http://www.zdnet.com/amazon-launches-glacier-cloud-storage-hopes-enterprise-will-go-cold-on-tape-use-7000002926/ http://www.zdnet.com/amazon-launches-glacier-cloud-storage-h...

batbomb 13y ago
No, it doesn't definitively say the backing storage is not tape based. Only that: "Essentially you can see this as a replacement for tape," and: "inexpensive commodity hardware components" Nowhere did they explicitly deny that it may be tape-backed. In addition, From the article: Instead, Glacier runs on "inexpensive commodity hardware components", he said, noting that the service is designed to be hardware-agnostic. Which may allude to the fact that the backing storage itself may be flexible (a combination of HDD, Tape, possible BDXL) The author himself only acknowledges: This suggests the system will be based on very large storage arrays consisting of a multitude of high-capacity low-cost discs. Which isn't definitive in the slightest. Also, the article is over 18 months old. I've said it before, I wouldn't be terrible surprised if they got started with old commodity hardware to get started, but the economics and characteristics of tape still seem much more amenable to the use case.
- dmourati 13y ago
  "Replacement for tape" is tape? OK.
  - VintageCool 13y ago
    "Essentially you can see this (our tape) as a replacement for [your] tape".
- dkoch 13y ago
  "Asked what IT equipment Glacier uses, Amazon told ZDNet it does not run on tape."