ON STORAGE

Plasmon Takes DVD Storage to the Max

by Lowell Rapaport

Plasmon has set a record with the single largest-capacity jukebox yet available. With more than 2,000 slots, the Enterprise D-Series packs more than 20 terabytes of storage into a device just 76 inches high by 37 inches deep by 49 inches wide.

Why did Englewood, CO-based Plasmon feel the need to build such a giant? For one thing, the price of storage is at an all-time low. Hard disk drive storage now costs as little as $2 per gigabyte. As the price of online storage drops, it puts tremendous pressure on near-line storage to become ever more efficient. One result is that jukeboxes are growing in size. The previous record holder was Golden, CO-based Asaca's 1,450-slot TeraCart library.

It's not surprising that Plasmon is concentrating on building large boxes. A report by Framingham, MA-based IDC states that by 2003, more than half of all DVD jukeboxes will be larger than 200 slots, and the fastest sales growth is for jukeboxes larger than 500 slots.

According to Shawn Klein, Plasmon's director of optical product marketing, the earliest adopters for the Enterprise D-Series have been medical imaging customers. "Medical images consume a lot of storage; plus they have to be saved for the life of the patient — up to 80 years in some cases. This creates a need for large amounts of low-cost storage."

Other potential uses identified by Plasmon include e-mail archiving, government archives and scientific imaging applications such as geophysical mapping. "The Enterprise D-Series will sell to traditional DVD jukeboxes markets [in which they're handling] large-size, low-demand archives," says Klein, adding that the devices will be particularly attractive to those using multiple smaller libraries.

Document management users have historically used magneto optical (MO) drives and jukeboxes for their archives. "MO discs are robust enough for heavy-duty use but are expensive at about $100 a piece," says Klein. "They are best suited to high-end archives that are used on a regular basis. DVDs, while not as robust, are much less expensive and can be used for older, less frequently accessed files."

The Enterprise D-Series combines the case and robotics from the company's G-Series magneto-optical jukeboxes with the disc picker, flipper and magazines from the D-Series DVD jukeboxes. Plasmon says this enabled it to build a massive jukebox while keeping engineering and production costs down. Prices for the Enterprise D-Series start at $27,500 for an 875-slot unit and two DVD-RAM drives. Maxed out with eight DVD-RAM drives, four DVD-R drives and 2,050 slots, the top-of-the-line model is approximately $85,000.

The previous slot champ, the Asaca TeraCart AM1450 DVD jukebox is priced at about $130,000 when fitted with 12 DVD-RAM drives. Although the Asaca is 30 percent less capacious than the Enterprise D-Series at 13.6 terabytes, it supports up to 24 DVD drives for fast access times, offers an optional, internally mounted server (versus Plasmon's external server option) and has the ability to connect multiple jukeboxes, allowing discs to be passed between them.

The Enterprise D-Series is a modular system with an 875-slot core unit and up to two expansion modules with 650 slots each. Plasmon says these modules can be added in the field in less than 30 minutes. The jukebox can hold between two and 12 drives, either all DVD-RAM or a mixture of DVD-RAM and up to four DVD-R drives. Drives must be added in pairs, and you lose 25 slots for each pair of drives added to the machine. The jukebox supports mixing of both DVD-RAM and DVD-R media.

Unlike the MO jukebox the Enterprise D-Series is based on, there is no mail slot. Instead the jukebox is manually loaded with up to six 10-disc magazines. A disc-flipping mechanism for double-sided discs is standard. Blank DVDs are sold by Plasmon already preloaded into magazines. A 10 pack of DVDs storing 94 gigabytes costs $290 for DVD-R discs and $430 for DVD-RAM discs. A full load of DVD media will cost anywhere from $25,375 (for 875 DVD-R discs) to $93,525 (for 2,175 DVD-RAM discs). Combining hardware and media costs, this jukebox drives the cost of storage down below 10 cents per gigabyte.