Sony Unveils 2U-Slim Rack-Mountable AIT Library

Sony Electronics today introduced what it said is the first Sony Advanced Intelligent Tape(TM) (AIT) library with a compact and innovative two-rack-units-slim, rack-mountable design.

The Sony StorStation(TM) AIT library (model LIB-162) system houses one AIT-2 drive (expandable up to two) and 16 cartridge slots in a unique carousel design that provides storage capacity of up to 2.08 TB and data transfer rates of up to 112 GB per hour (both with average 2.6:1 compression). Leveraging the 3.5-inch AIT drive form-factor, the LIB-162 occupies just two-rack units in a rack-mountable configuration for easy installation achieving maximum rack space density for data centers and space-restricted environments.

The new library is scalable from one to two AIT-2 drives to accommodate growing storage needs, allowing users to increase capacities by simply hot-plugging next generation, higher capacity drive models into the library.

Sony said the LIB-162 system, which incorporates one AIT-2 tape drive and comes with a complimentary version of NovaStor’s TapeCopy(TM) v2.0 Library Edition tape conversion and duplication software, will be available this month at an estimated price of under $9,000. Additional accessories, such as a second AIT-2 drive and an eight-pack of 50 GB Sony AIT-2 data cartridges, will be sold separately.