Seagate Announces Autoloader for Viper 2000 Tape Drives and New Cheetah Hard Disk Drives

Tape drive manufacturer Seagate Removable Storage Solutions (RSS) today announced the Viper(R) 2000 tape autoloader for its Ultrium-format Viper 2000 tape drive.

According to Seagate, Viper 2000 is aimed at the midrange to enterprise server market, is a hands-free backup solution, provides up to 2 terabytes of compressed unattended backup from 10 cartridge slots with an additional slot for a cleaning cartridges, and has transfer rates up to 1.92 gigabytes per minute.

Brad Renfree, director of LTO Product Line Management at Seagate Removable Storage Solutions, said, “Data continues to proliferate at unprecedented rates. New applications and the Internet, which has created 24/7 data availability requirements, are driving the data growth. These factors, coupled with any organization’s specific data demands and requirements, have created a strong need for high-capacity automated data protection. Seagate’s Viper 2000 autoloader provides the clear solution to these challenges in the midrange to enterprise server segment.”

Seagate’s Viper 2000 is compatible with Windows (NT and 2000), NetWare, UNIX and LINUX and backup software programs from VERITAS, CA, Legato, BakBone and more.

In related news, Seagate announced that the Cheetah line of hard disk drives now feature improved performance and increased storage space. The Cheetah X15-36LP now features a Ultra320 SCSI or 2-Gbit Fibre Channel interface and has doubled Cheetah capacity to over 36 gigabytes.

According to Seagate, the Cheetah X15-36LP was created for transaction processing applications such as those running within high-performance, data-intensive enterprise servers and workstations.

Brian Dexheimer, Seagate executive vice president, Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Customer Service said, “Performance is only half of the story and Seagate understands the need to deliver industry-leading I/O capability with world-class data reliability. Seagate has consistently been the leader in pioneering newer, better, and faster technologies because there is a clear need for these types of storage solutions for virtually every industry today. Storage is at the heart of many enterprises, whether it’s a small business or a multinational corporation. Our design team understands this and the Cheetah X15-36LP is a crowning achievement to their commitment in providing the best performance and reliability available.”

Single evaluation-unit prices of the various Cheetah X15-36LP models are $395.00 for the 18GB Ultra320 SCSI and 18GB 2 Gb Fibre Channel versions, and $750 for the 36GB Ultra320 SCSI 36GB 2 Gb Fibre Channel editions. The first Cheetah X15-36LP models are scheduled to ship during the second quarter of this year.