4 ms·

Oh, you're right. I haven't thought about this for a while, and I remember my previous assumption about tape storage being challenged. I'll replace that part wi

Oh, you're right. I haven't thought about this for a while, and I remember my previous assumption about tape storage being challenged. I'll replace that part with "cold storage". After refreshing my memory: Amazon outright they're using denied tape backup, some third-parties pointed out cold spinning disks wouldn't be very economical, and a few people theorized it's actually BDXL.

ghaff 12y ago
Cold storage is probably safe. I've seen the assertion that it's tape from someone who I wouldn't have thought would get it wrong but I'd now bet against it whether or not Amazon's denial seals the deal. Robin Harris has argued in favor of BDXL but he's speculated about a number of things. http://storagemojo.com/2014/04/25/amazons-glacier-secret-bdxl/ http://storagemojo.com/2014/04/25/amazons-glacier-secret-bdx... My money would be on the simplest: cold disk. Some support here: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2014/04/27/how-is-amazon-glacier-implemented/ http://mjtsai.com/blog/2014/04/27/how-is-amazon-glacier-impl... but it's all speculative and anecdotal. I don't have a problem with the thought that Amazon is getting out ahead of the drive economics, especially given that I'm not sure how widely used Glacier is today. I do find it interesting that this has been apparently kept under wraps from anyone who would share more widely.
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  Someone that worked set amazon at the time Glacier came out a while back commented that it is some type of extremely low power hard drive that backs this system. Which makes sense due to the 1-4 hour delay in retrieval time. The racks are idle and only come online one every 4 hours or so and batch retrieve/store their data then power down. This small power usage is probably what makes them profit on this very slim margin.

4 ms·

Oh, you're right. I haven't thought about this for a while, and I remember my previous assumption about tape storage being challenged. I'll replace that part wi

by lunixbochs 12y ago

ghaff 12y ago
Cold storage is probably safe. I've seen the assertion that it's tape from someone who I wouldn't have thought would get it wrong but I'd now bet against it whether or not Amazon's denial seals the deal. Robin Harris has argued in favor of BDXL but he's speculated about a number of things. http://storagemojo.com/2014/04/25/amazons-glacier-secret-bdxl/ http://storagemojo.com/2014/04/25/amazons-glacier-secret-bdx... My money would be on the simplest: cold disk. Some support here: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2014/04/27/how-is-amazon-glacier-implemented/ http://mjtsai.com/blog/2014/04/27/how-is-amazon-glacier-impl... but it's all speculative and anecdotal. I don't have a problem with the thought that Amazon is getting out ahead of the drive economics, especially given that I'm not sure how widely used Glacier is today. I do find it interesting that this has been apparently kept under wraps from anyone who would share more widely.
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  Someone that worked set amazon at the time Glacier came out a while back commented that it is some type of extremely low power hard drive that backs this system. Which makes sense due to the 1-4 hour delay in retrieval time. The racks are idle and only come online one every 4 hours or so and batch retrieve/store their data then power down. This small power usage is probably what makes them profit on this very slim margin.