It can store 100TB of data, held on LTO tapes, with the data remaining “future-proof and easily accessible for years to come”
Fujifilm has launched the Kangaroo Lite, a smaller version of its Kangaroo LTO tape archive storage system.
Both models use a library of LTO tapes for the long-term archival storage of content, with the Kangaroo Lite being a much more compact version of the system.
The Kangaroo Lite is pitched at organisations requiring storage of 100TB and above, with Fujifilm saying data stored on the device will “remain future-proof and easily accessible for years to come.” In the product literature, Fujifilm lists an archival life of more than 30 years.
The Kangaroo Lite has two LTO8 tape drives and can store, manage and retrieve up to 38 LTO8 tapes inside.
The device is controlled using Fujifilm’s Object Archive software, which is an open format with no vendor lock-in. It’s designed specifically for transferring data to a tape-based, on-prem archive, and it can also transfer additional copies to the cloud or to Fujifilm’s own data centre.
Fujifilm believes on-prem archiving that doesn’t require internet connectivity, such as the Kangaroo, is the best archival storage option as it offers “air-gap protection” against ransomware and cyber-attacks.
Fuji is the largest manufacturer of tape products. According to the company’s research, 60-80% of data will be archival data by 2027 and, it says, there needs to be long-term archiving solution for this data, which has led to the development of the Kangaroo and Kangaroo Lite.
Kangaroo can store upwards of 1PB of data, whereas Kangaroo Lite offers storage of more than 100TB. Kangaroo has 120 tape slots compared to Kangaroo Lite’s 38 slots. Fujifilm says the Kangaroo Lite is aimed at post-production, media and entertainment and SMBs.
Both systems provide a ‘self-healing’ system architecture, which reconstructs tapes from backup tapes if it finds any errors. The device mandates a twice-yearly physical health check of tapes, requiring the user to insert each of their LTO tapes into the machine. The Kangaroo Lite reads the RFID ‘black box’ chip on the tape and checks the integrity of each tape to ensure all data stored on it remains safe and readable.
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