HOW TO PAY YOUR CD JUKEBOX OFF WITH ONE PHONE CALL
A CD jukebox holds many CDs. It is the easiest and cheapest way for everyone on your LAN to get to CD information. The good news is that CD jukeboxes are cheaper, better made, easier to install and come with many more options. There is a CD jukebox in your future.
Imagine 100 CDs on-line on your network accessible from your desktop for only $3,000. Sony has just introduced one. It's our Best Buy.
Here are the five most popular uses for CD jukeboxes / libraries:
1.Imaging. Imagine a business with three years of accounts receivable on CD. A customer calls about a long overdue account. Instead of rummaging through basement file cabinets full of mildewy paper, you pull up the account while the customer is on the phone.
Clear up the misunderstanding with your customer. Collect your money. Pay for your CD jukebox with one phone call!
Some jukeboxes will burn CDs and play them back. You could have one PC set up to scan daily accounts. And zillions more for your people to read them back to calling customers.
There is now CD software that scans, burns and then searches. We like IMR's (Englewood, CO 303-689-0022) Alchemy Scan2CD.
Some CD jukeboxes are network devices. Plug them in directly to your network. They're like networked printers. You no longer have to dedicate a single desktop to recording and retrieving CDs.
2. Archive. Archived data is stored information that's retrieved and accessed often either on-line or off-line.
CD jukeboxes (also called libraries) now come with removable magazines or packs to store CDs offline. CD jukebox software keeps an index of everything in the removable packs. If you want something that's not presently on-line, it will signal: "Go stick in Pack B."
CD has always had one major benefit over many other storage technologies: fast access. Well-written search engines make finding data on a 650 MB CD quick and easy. Put a bunch of CDs in a jukebox. Now you have a library of information.
It makes CD a good solution for archiving data. There's now faster and more caching to keep more data on-line. The media should last at least 30 years -- about my life span if I keep working here. (Editor's note: I saw that.)
More and more companies in vertical markets distribute information on multiple CDs. Let's say you want your operators to look up a US phone number. Delorme's (Freeport, ME 207-865-4171) Phone Search USA 3.0 has 96 million phone numbers and comes on seven CDs. You'd drive yourself nuts switching CDs. You want them all on-line. Perfect application for a CD jukebox.
Law offices receive tax codes on CDs. A CD library manages many CDs. Medical journals and books come on CD. Medical offices store the CDs in a library. A doctor types in an ailment and gets a diagnosis. Type in a problem. Access the law on CD. Who needs lawyers any longer?
3. Internet. Imagine a Web site with instruction manuals on-line for every product you've made for the last 30 days! How much would you save instead of having agents sit on the phone, search mildewing file cabinets and fax back the wrong page, with the wrong part numbers.
Behind many Web sites is a CD jukebox server. Sony's 100 CD jukebox will hold 65,000,000,000 bytes of information. That's 65 billion bytes.
A patent search Web site (www.micropat.com) uses 45 Luminex (Riverside, CA 909-781-4100) CD jukeboxes storing two terabytes of information -- 4,000 CDs in total. Select a patent to download. The server gets it from the jukebox.
4.CD-Production. A few jukeboxes come with recorders only. Some jukes let you simultaneously write four CDs. Some even come with CD printers to label the burned CDs. CD printers use ink and print a label directly onto the CD. Produce professional quality CDs in-house.
"Part of the benefit of CD-ROM technology is people can easily read a CD regardless of the type of machine you used to burn your CD," says Les Inanchy, marketing manager for MO and CD libraries at Sony (San Jose, CA 408-432-0190).
Many companies use CDs to distribute information to clients, to potential customers and to in-house staff. This is becoming a more widespread use. You don't have to make CDs off-site.
You don't have to tie up a lot of machines to make duplicates. A jukebox using a built-in hard drive as a buffer for recording frees you up completely. You don't have to dedicate individual workstations to burn a lot of CDs. The jukebox can do it by itself.
It pays to make your own CDs in-house if you need to duplicate 50 to 100 CDs. If you're duplicating 200 to 1,000 CDs you may want to send it to a service bureau or a disc manufacturer. (Editors' note: CD use has exploded in the last few years. Most service bureaus are overwhelmed with demand. Put a penalty clause in for lateness.)
5.Storage. A couple of years ago using CDs for storage might have sounded ludicrous. Not anymore. A good storage option is affordable, accessible, standardized and easily recognizable. CD jukeboxes help CD-ROM fit the bill.
The CD media shortage is over. That means the cost of CD media has dropped. Media manufacturers have built new factories to produce more media. Jukebox costs are going down because there are more manufacturers. It's a more affordable solution to buy into.
"In the last six months recordable media has gone down in price," says Art Tolsma, Luminex's director of business development. "That makes media costs less expensive for a large system."
Advances in CD-R software and the long media life make it the easy solution to pick. You can now write in packets. Packet writing lets you burn a CD in sections instead of all 650 MBs at once. Gone are the days of having to burn a CD in one sitting and (usually) losing lots of valuable space.
As a write-once solution vertical applications are abundant. Banks store financial data on CD jukeboxes. Canceled checks aren't looked up on microfiche. They now appear at a teller's terminal after a simple search is performed.
Document Repository (San Francisco, CA 415-989-2300) services 150 law firms. They store documents for their clients.
They get a collection of documents in a box. Those documents are migrated to CD. They outsource the job. They get the information back on CD. "We put the information on CD because it's a standard format in the legal business. Cost per megabyte is cheap. It's transportable," says Document Repository president, Chris Kruse.
They use a mix of jukeboxes from NSM (Bensenville, IL 630-860-5100) and Pioneer (Long Beach, CA 310-952-2111). They have 1,800 CDs on their network. That's 1.1 terabytes of storage.
The Players
These jukeboxes are good solutions for small offices.
Elms' (Irvine, CA 714-461-3200) DVL library has lots of benefits for small offices and departments. Get the DVL with 12X CD-ROM drives for faster reading of CDs in the juke. It holds 100 CDs in five removable magazines and four drives. Buy extra magazine holders to store off-line discs. Just pop them in when needed.
DVL has a 4 GB drive to avoid buffer under-run. The latest version of DVL has one CD-R drive for recording. Three CD-ROM drives for reading. It uses Smart Storage's software for variable packet writing. Prices start at $5,500.
Upgrade the LSX-CDL-100 CD-R library from Luminex (Riverside, CA 909-781-4100) at your office. It can have three CD-ROM drives and one 4X CD-R drive. Read and write simultaneously with this jukebox. It holds 100 discs. This solution comes with their own Fire Series CD networking software. It works with Windows, Mac and NetWare.
You know NSM (Bensenville, IL 630-860-5100) for their solid midrange libraries. Their newest solution -- the Satellite -- is for the low-end entry level user. It has a fast robot designed for utmost reliability. The robot and drives never touch the media because they're transported in and out of the drives on plastic platters. This means faster swap times.
It holds two drives and 120 CDs and costs $10,000. With four drives, it holds 90 CDs and costs $11,500. The four drive unit services more users. It has hot swappable CD packs that have their own memory chips. The packs know which CDs are in and which ones are out. The packs are the same size as a drive.
The smallest jukebox in this roundup comes from Panasonic (Secaucus, NJ 201-348-7000). They sell the PD/CD-ROM library. Get a 50 disc model with two PD or CD-ROM drives starting at $7,000. A PD drive is the same size as a CD-ROM only it's rewritable. It reads and writes PD discs. It also reads CDs. Another option is the 100 disc model with two or four drives.
The Cascade ($10,000) from Pinnacle Micro (Irvine, CA 714-789-3000) is a bundled solution. It's a read-only jukebox that works on a network using Ornetix software. It has four CD-ROM drives. Two magazines store 50 CDs each. This gives you access to 65 GB of data.
Pioneer's DRM-1004 ($9,000+) series of libraries have four drives. Put a CD-R drive in a DRM-1004. Now it comes with 12X CD-ROM drives for faster reads. There are two removable magazines holding up to 50 discs each. Hook it up as a file server on your network.
The D-Series 120 disc library from Plasmon (Minneapolis, MN 612-946-4100) starts at $10,000. It works with software from IXOS, Pegasus, Smart Storage and Ornetix. Pick one that works best with your operating system. It works with NT, NetWare, OS/2 and Unix servers. Put in four drives. Two recorders. Two readers. Four readers or four PD drives. You decide.
Midrange Libraries
The jukes in this section are best suited for larger networks. They hold from 150 to 200 CDs.
Grundig's (Valley Forge, PA 610-933-5875) GMS 3200 CD is an expandable solution. Start out with the basic 200 disc model. Eight removable magazines store 25 discs each. Get a unit with four CD-ROM drives or one with three CD-ROM drives and a CD-R drive to backup and archive data. Expand this system to hold 1,600 CDs by adding eight more magazines.
MDI's (Winter Park, FL 407-677-8333) CD-Express Library costs $15,000. It works with its own SCSI Express software for NetWare or Windows NT. This helps ensure software and hardware compatibility.
It houses three removable magazines holding 50 CDs each. It stores almost 94 GB. Add stacks of CDs with the magazines or load them one at a time through the mail slot. You can add or remove discs while the jukebox is operating. This library only comes with four 8X CD-ROM drives. You can't record. Use it for storage and retrieval.
NSM is one of the original jukebox players. They're known for reliability. They have a bunch of libraries to choose from depending on your needs. Prices start at $14,000. The Mercury 40 holds 150 discs and four CD-ROM drives. The Mercury 40 Net has a built-in network controller. This lets you hook up the jukebox anywhere on a Novell network. The Mercury 31 also has four drives -- three CD-ROMs and one CD-R. It reads and writes concurrently. It stores 150 discs.
The MegaPlex 200 disc CD-ROM jukebox from Plextor (Santa Clara, CA 408-980-1838) starts at $5,500 for a desktop unit. This two-drive library works on a network by using Ornetix's software for NetWare environments and OTG's software solution for Windows NT. It costs about $2,000 more for a bundled solution.
Sony's (San Jose, CA 408-432-0190) CDL-2100 Fyla CD-ROM/CD-R jukebox is a networked solution. It puts a virtual CD-R drive on every client's desktop. Record loads of data across the network. Pick your own software. You can have four drives. They can all be CD-R drives or all CD-ROM drives or two of each. You pick.
Another CDL series library lets you have as many as six CD-R drives and 200 discs on-line. This is great for in-house CD production. The only thing missing a CD printer. CDL-2100 CD libraries range in price from $11,000-$18,000.
Large Libraries
These libraries hold up to 600 CDs. Some manufacturers bundle CD printers with their jukeboxes for CD production.
The Infinidisc Robotic Library from Cygnet (San Jose, CA 408-383-1800) is an expandable solution. Choose from six libraries. Up to eight drives. Get a unit that holds 250 CDs with two drives ($10,000) or 500 discs with four drives ($15,000).
Upgrade the library at your site. Since the system boasts easy upgradeability you should be able to put CD-R drives in the library. It works with software from Smart Storage, OTG and Celerity. All software options write CDs. It's a solution that grows as your storage needs change.
Cygnet's InfiniWriter ($25,000) pumps out 18 CDs an hour. Burn three CDs per drive per hour with the 4X recorders. The carousel stores 250 CDs. They've also put in a full color thermal inkjet printer. You can print labels directly on the CDs after you burn them. They're using Fargo's printer. It's good. We liked it a lot when we tested it.
Grundig's GMP 3200 has an optional integrated printer to label blank CD-R media after you've recorded the disc. It comes with four CD-R drives. It can hold up to 200 discs in eight magazines. Each magazine holds 25 discs. Change the CDs through the loading bay or removable magazines. The LCD display reports job status, service and diagnosis.
The good thing about some of these bigger libraries is you get more storage for the price. JVC's (Cypress, CA 714-816-6500) MC-1600 CD Jukebox ($16,000) packs 600 CDs onto your network. Store CDs in six 50-disc interchangeable magazines. It holds up to six drives (8X CD-ROM and/or CD-R). A CD mail slot lets you change CDs while the jukebox is working.
Pioneer's DRM-5004 series of CD libraries starts at $16,000. It holds 500 discs in five magazines. It only has four drives. One can even be a CD-R drive. The problem is the disc-to-drive ratio. Use it for storage.
Plasmon's D-Series libraries come with 240 or 480 slots. The 240 slot jukes can have two CD-ROM drives and two recorders. Make it a read-only juke. Put in as many as six 8X CD-ROM or PD drives. The jukes holding 480 discs come with six drives. Mix and match four CD-ROM drives and two recorders. Another option? Try six CD-ROM drives or PD drives with 480 discs. Add discs to the library with the 10-disc CD packs. Prices start at $15,000.
