StorageTek T9840D Tape Drives

Fast access drives efficiency

The access-centric StorageTek T9840D tape drives provide you with the industry’s fastest access to data and nearly double the capacity of the StorageTek T9840C tape drive – up to 75 GB. The drive’s fast access times boost productivity and the increased capacity simplifies media management. What’s more you can reduce power, cooling, and acquisition costs by deployment energy-efficient tape instead of disk for applications such as check imaging and hierarchical storage management.

Dual-hub technology speeds data access

Enabled by dual-hub technology, the StorageTek T9840D tape drive delivers an average access time of 16.5 seconds, which is, on average, four times faster than competitive drives. What’s more, the StorageTek T9840D tape drive is the only enterprise-class fast-access tape drive with an average access time of less than 20 seconds, including load and thread.

Improves efficiency in mainframe environments

The StorageTek T9840D tape drives provide direct-attach ESCON or FICON options, which help enable remote storage applications and improve business continuance. You can support distances up to nine kilometers with ESCON and up to 100 kilometers with FICON without channel extensions or significant reductions in throughput. Thanks to direct connection, you decrease cost, complexity, and points of failure.

What’s more, you can use the StorageTek T9840D tape drives with the StorageTek Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) system to speed active data retrieval or with hierarchical storage management software to centralize storage management.

Enables high performance SANs

The StorageTek T9840D offers a native 2 Gb, fabric-aware Fibre Channel interface that enables high-powered connectivity. So you can implement a high-speed SAN with confidence. With a 200 MB/sec burst data rate and a 30 MB/sec sustained data transfer rate, the StorageTek T9840D helps reduce network congestion and gives you the performance you need to place more and more data on cost-effective tape. Plus, you gain the speed you need for backups and disaster recovery.

In open systems environments, you can use the StorageTek T9840D tape drives with StorageTek ACSLS Manager software to implement a centralized library management solution that allows you to dynamically allocate library resources without hard partitioning tape slots.

Ensures Longevity

Reusing media protects your existing investments

When you upgrade to the StorageTek T9840D tape drive, you can reuse the same media you’ve used in the three prior generations. That’s because the fourth-generation StorageTek T9840D tape drive uses the same Sun StorageTek 9840 data cartridge as the StorageTek T9840A, T9840B, and T9840C tape drives.

Mix and match tape drives

This protects your investment and enables you to leverage your existing media assets with the StorageTek T9840D to meet changing storage requirements, enabling you to mix and match tape drives in StorageTek tape libraries to achieve the optimum balance of access and capacity. For example, you can reformat existing cartridges to store higher capacities and apply your media budget to the purchase of capital assets.

Protects Sensitive Data

Crypto-ready

The crypto-ready StorageTek T9840D tape drive provides device-level security and enables you to add encryption to your data defense strategy, ensuring that only authorized users are granted access to encrypted data.

Easy to manage

The StorageTek T9840D works in conjunction with the StorageTek Crypto Key Management System, an appliance that provides a simple, centralized, scalable solution for managing the keys used to encrypt and decrypt data written by the drive.

VolSafe technology and WORM protection

In addition, you can also use StorageTek VolSafe secure media technology for write-once, read-many (WORM) protection. VolSafe technology and WORM capability help you meet stringent electronic storage regulatory and legal requirements. You can securely archive data on non-erasable, non-rewritable tape and recall data within seconds when you need it.

High Reliability

24x7 data availability

The ultra-reliable StorageTek T9840D tape drives are designed to support 24x7 operations with enterprise-class, high-duty cycles and high-reliability features such as a 16-channel tape head, internal tape path, and robust motors and cartridge-loading mechanism.

Protects against downtime

If your systems go down, your business goes down, which means you lose customers and profits. The StorageTek T9840D’s enterprise-class engineering and performance minimize the risk of downtime and help you maintain round-the-clock operations.

Unique features ensure uptime

• Heated tape heads contribute to consistent operational temperature and reduce condensation to extend head life
• Sixteen-channel heads reduce the number of tape passes and increase data reliability
• Tape path remains inside the media cartridge, preventing broken leader blocks, improving data integrity, and reducing the need for head cleaning
• Removal of tape from heads during high-speed operations, such as search and rewind extends head life
• Data buffer management enables drive back drive hitching to be completed before the data buffer can be filled, resolving data interruption at low throughput speeds
• Robust cartridge loader mechanism operates in the industry’s leading library, the StorageTek SL8500 modular library system