May 1999
Putting CD Jukeboxes in Their Place
By Liz Levy
DVD is here, and it wonıt be long before we see it invading the CD space. RAID devices are also making competitive strides as hard disc prices plummet. So what is the future of CD storage?
With so many millions of discs floating around, it will be near impossible for CD storage to go anywhere in a hurry. Of course, nearly every DVD jukebox got its start in the CD world. In the future, advances and technologies developed for DVD may trickle back to benefit those who are sticking with the older format. In the meantime, vendors are mixing new flavors and capacities of CD jukeboxes to exploit gaps and opportunities in the market.
Manufacturers like NSM (Atlanta, GA) are adding mid- to high-capacity (250- to 500-disc) CD jukeboxes for CD users with big demands. At the low end, a 100-disc jukebox has been announced by JVC (Cypress, CA), carving out a capacity range where DVD jukeboxes wonıt tread.
ıThe smaller 100-150 disc jukeboxes with 65 GB to 100 GB capacities are competing directly with hard drives and RAID systems,ı says Paul Meyhoefer, senior manager of sales and marketing for the optical systems division of Pioneer (Long Beach, CA). These products work very well for CD sharing applications, but for archiving, RAID has the performance advantage.ı
Ray Freeman of the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) points out that the CD format still has an ace in the hole compared to RAID. ıHard drives are getting faster, bigger and cheaper, but they are not removable,ı he says. ıCD is a distribution media, and hard drives are complimentary to CD applications. Higher capacity hard drives allow users to save more information, which stimulates the use of CD recording.ı
Although there is much speculation about CD towers disappearing, Freeman believes these will still be used for distributing set amounts of published
information.
As for DVD, Freeman says, ıThe transition from CD-ROM to DVD-ROM is already under way. People are still using CD-R for recording. The various approaches to rewritable DVD are creating a hesitance to buy, but that will be alleviated by the OSTA multiread specification for DVD thatıs coming soon.ı
According to Mary Bourdon, principal analyst at Dataquest in San Jose, CA, approximately 5,710 CD jukeboxes shipped from the manufacturersı factories in 1997. (Not all of these units were sold to end users through sales channels.) This number dropped well below 5,000 last year, she estimates. (Dataquest defines a jukebox as a device that holds 50 or more platters and uses some sort of robotic disc swapping mechanism.)
ıThe CD jukebox market in 1998 didnıt look too good,ı Bourdon says. ıThe industry was struggling with the anticipation of DVD-RAM, which was not quite ready for prime time yet. However, the storage expansion possibilities for DVD-RAM may give CD a shot in the arm.ı
Bourdon says the primary use for CD jukeboxes remains archiving for referential material. ıThis may also decline as the Web is used for that purpose,ı she says. ıThe applications for CD storage do not appear to be growing, although Kodak has seen success targeting pre-press applications that have a lot of digital imaging characteristics.ı
Kodak (Rochester, NY) had high market share in 1998, according to Bourdon, and niche marketing may be the reason why.
Filling Niche Needs
As has been the case with Kodak, one way vendors are competing is by selling niche solutions rather than all-purpose product. JVC and NSM, for example, both recently launched nearly identical email archiving solutions that bundle their jukeboxes with xVmail email archiving software from xVault (Amherst, NH). Email archiving is a great application for CD-R because of the low cost of the media, at less than $0.01/MB, and its WORM security.
The JVC and NSM solutions are aimed at the issue of email as an official record for both government and private business. Many government agencies are required to comply with new electronic records management standards and practices dictated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Department of Defense (DoD) and other authorities.
Email archiving systems also function in business as an effective tool to monitor and enforce company-wide email policies. Email is an information asset, and managing it properly reduces liabilities and deters intelligence leaks.
The email archiving solution from JVC starts at $35,000 for the xVmail software and their MC-2100U 100-disc capacity jukebox. NSM prices their system at $24,845 for the software and their Satellite 100-disc capacity jukebox. Both packages can be upgraded to higher capacity jukebox models.
In March, Inso (Boston, MA), SmartStorage (Andover, MA) and NSM announced a partnership to integrate Insoıs MediaBank asset management software with SmartStorage storage management software and NSM CD jukeboxes. The media management/digital archive solution is geared toward publishers, advertising agencies, corporate marketing departments and pre-press houses running on either Unix or NT platforms. These organizations can manage and store terabytes of documents, images, text and illustrations, as well as video and audio files on CD and often output finished material on CD as well.
ıTypically, the assets stored in MediaBank are so large that you donıt want to keep them online perpetually,ı says Karen Gage, senior product manager at Inso. ıOur users create graphic-intensive images that are stored at high resolutions for optimal print output. One graphic can be 50 MB and there can be multiple graphics in a single layout.ı
Gage says Inso has always provided tape as an option for near-line storage, but the deal with SmartStorage and NSM has answered customersı requests for CD support.
Kodak, iXos Software (San Mateo, CA) and Canto Software (San Francisco, CA) recently announced a similar alliance that couples storage and asset management with CD jukebox storage.
The package includes Kodakıs Digital Science CD Library 54 or 144 CD jukebox, iXos Jukeman storage management software (now distributed by Smart Storage) and Cantoıs Cumulus asset management software. The solution will organize, search and distribute images online, near-line and offline.
ıAsset management represents an important application for these [storage] technologies,ı says Gerald Smart, worldwide marketing manager, storage products, for Kodak. ıBecause of the types of image-rich information involved in the graphics industry, there is a particular need for fast, flexible solutions.ı
Back in the Mainstream
Of course, there are new products that have more than a niche play. Cygnet (San Jose, CA) recently partnered with Chess DAX (Haarlem, The Netherlands) to offer the SmartDAX CD Jukebox. Itıs being sold for both pre-press and more traditional document and image management storage applications. With 700 platters, it is one of the highest capacity jukeboxes available, and it also offers seamless system integration via direct network connection.
Through the Chess partnership, Cygnet will also offer slimDAX, a new CD jukebox that combines Cygnetıs id 100 CD jukebox with the networking and archival technology in Chessı smartDAX product.
Both smartDAX and slimDAX can be plugged into combined Unix, Windows NT and Mac environments and communicate over a standard 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. The DAX file system is transparent to users who can access the device the same way as they would a hard disk or a network drive. Searches can be performed on directory names and structures directly on the server. The DAX line also offers a caching system for fast performance. Prices for the two products vary. The price for smartDAX is about $36,000, while slimDAX is about $16,000.
JVCıs latest library, the MC-2100, began shipping in March. This new 100-disc capacity library supports up to 65 GB of CD storage or 470 GB of DVD-ROM storage (DVD-RAM is expected by June). The base model features two 50-disc removable magazines, two 32x CD-ROM drives and a SCSI-2 interface. The jukebox is controlled from a 10-key front panel display.
The MC-2100U supports up to four drives in all and has an average disc exchange time of 4.5 seconds. There is a mail slot to insert and remove discs quickly without shutting down the device. Discs are transported on trays to avoid contact with the media surface. The jukebox starts at $5,995.
You can add an optional internal inkjet disc printer. The company is considering adding an internal thin-server networking device, according to Richard Young, VP of the professional computer products division at JVC.
NSMıs largest-capacity jukebox, the Galaxy, began shipping this year. NSM missed a growing market segment in recent years by keeping their line in the low-capacity range, but theyıre making up for it in a big way with the 410-620 disc Galaxy. NSM may also introduce a mid-capacity 250-to 350-disc jukebox this quarter. All of NSMıs jukeboxes also support DVD-RAM.
The new Galaxyıs design is based closely on the Satellite 100-disc. The front panel features four accessible 15-disc magazines and a mail slot. A button next to the magazine ejects it from the jukebox while online. No other jukebox in this size class permits the removal of disc magazines while online. Each magazine is barcoded and has a memory chip that stores directory information. There is a two-line display, six menu navigation keys and a ten-digit keypad.
Internally the jukebox holds additional 15-disc magazines that are non-removable and 50-disc magazines that are removable by taking out one of the side panels. The modular design of the Galaxy offers several configuration options. Choose up to six CD-R drives (12x read/4x write) and up to 14 32x CD-ROM drives or DVD-RAM drives. Disc exchange time is a blazing six seconds on average.
With 14 CD-ROM drives, the Galaxy is priced at $25,695. With six CD-ROM drives and two CD-R drives the price is $23,895. With four CD-ROM drives, the price is $19,995.
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