OpticalJukebox.com
Title
Optical Jukebox: An optical jukebox is a robotic data storage device that can automatically load and unload optical discs, such as Compact Disc, DVD, Ultra Density Optical or Blu-ray disc and can provide terabytes of tertiary storage. The devices are often called optical disk libraries, robotic drives, or autochangers. Jukebox devices may have up to 2,000 slots for disks, and usually have a picking device that traverses the slots and drives. The arrangement of the slots and picking devices affects performance, depending on the space between a disk and the picking device. Seek times and transfer rates vary depending upon the optical technology.
Jukeboxes are used in high-capacity archive storage environments such as imaging, medical, and video. Hierarchical storage management is a strategy that moves little-used or unused files from fast magnetic storage to optical jukebox devices in a process called migration. If the files are needed, they are migrated back to magnetic disk. Optical disc libraries are also useful for making backups and in disaster recovery situations. Today one of the most important uses for jukeboxes is to archive data. Archiving data is different from backups in that the data is stored on media that will last up to 100 years. The data is usually written on Write Once Read Many (WORM) type discs so it can not be erased or changed.[1]
Jukeboxes typically contain internal SCSI based recordable drives (CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, UDO or Blu-ray) that connect directly to a file server and are managed by a third party jukebox management software. This software controls the movement of media within the jukebox, and the pre-mastering of data prior to the recording process.
Before the advent of the modern SAN and much cheaper hard disks, large-volume storage on DVD was more price-efficient than magnetic media. Jukebox capacities have greatly increased with the release of the 50GB dual layer Blu-ray (BD) format, with a road-map to increase to eight layers and 200GB per disc. The current format allows 35TB of storage from a single 700 disc jukebox, and up to 500TB in a Hybrid Storage Appliance utilizing 42U racks.
Description
Optical Jukeboxes are the most flexible and durable storage systems available. Embedded RAID, Fibre Channel, and server provide appliances to meet you specific needs. A more efficient recommendation is to have a disk cache attached to the jukebox for a higher number of simultaneous users. This way, the configuration operates in a FILO (First In Last Out) Manner. Here' files accessed are only sent back to the optical discs after they have been utilized. Changes may or may not be saved or versioned based on the user configuration and accessibility settings on the storage management software that runs the optical jukebox. The number of drives in the jukebox can be up to 6 depending on the size of the jukebox. The drives will read and write the data to the RAID / Disc cache and then present to end users. This way the 4 - 6 seconds read time only occurs during the initial data read process, then the data is sent to the cache.
Languages
English, German, French
Additional Information
Optical Jukeboxes currently hold hundreds of Terabytes, and Petabytes of data. Including DICOM, non DICOM, Audio, Video, Research, and High Definition files. Organizations utilizing optical jukeboxes include Banks, Hospitals, Research Labs, among other entities. Major suppliers of optical jukebox solutions include Phantom Data Systems, Powerfile, DISC, ASACA, Plasmon (now defunct), JVC (discontinued), Pioneer, HP (no longer supported), IBM, among others. Optical jukeboxes currently require standardization on blu ray format. This is because blu ray drives retroactively work with and are compatible with DVD and CD media. This has resulted in an upsurge in the adoption of blu ray as the storage and long term archiving platform of choice. This has led to a fast adoption rate in the storage and archiving industry. Optical jukeboxes are also fast replacing the disk to disk storage protocols due to low power consumption, zero failure rate, longevity and data permanence. Major optical jukebox suppliers like Phantom Data Systems support migrations from old UDO or tape systems and disk systems to blu ray optical jukeboxes for near line storage. An optical jukebox shortens backup and restore times from hours or days to minutes due to the elimination of replay cycles in a tape based environment. Using a disk cache on the front end also increases speed and performance. Optical jukebox technology has greatly advanced the speed, load handling, power consumption, space utilization (most now fit in a standard 42U rack), and cross platform compatibility. Now Windows, Linux, MAC, UNIX, and Solaris users can run multiple optical jukebox installations within their environments. One of the largest optical jukebox vendors in the US is Phantom Data Systems of Norwalk CT.
