Cache-A Adds Customers for LTFS-Based Archiving

Continuing to develop products that support the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) format, Cache-A Corporation has built a track record with this emerging technology.

Home Boox Office, Inc. (HBO), Safeway, Inc. and Offhollywood are among the first companies to deploy Cache-A’s enhanced LTFS technology with their archive appliances.

"LTFS is a great idea, but many early implementations need work," said Pliny, CIO of Offhollywood in New York. "Cache-A’s solution is the rare exception; our Pro-Cache appliance handles LTFS beautifully. We recently started partnering with HBO to archive certain digital media assets to LTFS LTO-5, and we couldn’t be happier with the workflow."

All of Cache-A’s LTO-5 based products include LTFS capability, including the company’s Pro-Cache5, the high-performance Power-Cache and the desktop Prime-Cache5. Cache-A is featuring these products at NAB 2012) in Las Vegas, NV.

LTFS is relevant for media and entertainment companies that need storage solutions that safeguard their content, increase data mobility and share content organization-wide.

"At the two previous NAB shows, we were one of the first companies to demonstrate and begin shipping complete LTFS-enabled products that are easy to use and provide complete functionality," said Phil Ritti, CEO of Cache-A. "Now, at this year’s NAB, we are proud to extend our leadership by being among the first companies to have customers using our LTFS-enabled products – helping them find, share and manage files on a daily basis."

Based on open software, LTFS enables users to interchange content across different operating systems, software applications and physical locations. It leverages the economy, robustness, high density and low power of tape with much of the functionality and usability of a hard drive by allowing tape to be accessed through standard file systems.

Cache-A enhances LTFS to overcome
the following limitations:

• LTFS has inherent characteristics that can cause long waits when used with file management tools like Windows Explorer or Finder
• With LTFS, restoring more than a few files at a time with Explorer or Finder can be very slow
• LTFS cannot be used by itself in a network or multi-user environments because the open code or ‘base level’ deployment requires that the LTO drive be dedicated to a single computer
• LTFS looks like, but does not behave like random access disk. Due to the inherent linear nature of tape, accesses must occur over all files in the order they were written, potentially causing long delays

Benefits of the Cache-A interface
that enhance LTFS include:

• File Manager Utility – File moving that avoids issues with Finder/Explorer
• URL Encoding – Allows archiving of file names with illegal characters
• Networked – Makes LTFS volumes available across a LAN
• Indexed – Every tape is searchable and can have additional metadata for every file, folder and tape
• Formatting of Media – No shell command line is required
• Mount and Unmount – No shell command line and no locked eject due to folders in use
• No Client-side Software – Every computer can work with it

With Cache-A’s implementation of LTFS, the tape both looks and behaves like a disk, and all tape operations are handled transparently in the background by the archive appliance and delivers a solution that is:

• Self-contained: Platform neutral to stand the test of time
• Interchangeable: Easy to distribute and interchange assets
• Extensible: Scalable to meet future needs

As a complete archive solution for digital media professionals, Cache-A appliances simplify operations, improve manageability and meet their long-term data retention requirements. Self-contained, easy to deploy with no assembly or installation required, Cache-A appliances know where every file lives on each tape and organizes restores for efficient linear access.

They also allow users to employ hard disk caching for file transfers, which protects them from the latencies and access issues associated with linear tape. In addition, they include remote support and software updates ensure that users always have the latest LTFS version as well as the latest Cache-A features.

"Cache-A’s LTO-5 based products with LTFS make an ideal archiving and interchange solution, enhancing both production and post-production workflows as well as improving asset management and interchange," said Mark Ostlund, VP of Sales and Marketing for Cache-A. "Because LTFS makes the contents of the tape compatible and accessible to any facility with an LTO-5 tape drive, it provides a self-contained content delivery system as well as a highly reliable archive format."

White paper that explains how Cache-A archive appliances utilize LTFS (registration needed)