XenData Ships Two New Media Archive Appliances

XenData X20 and X40
(Image credit: XenData)

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—XenData has launched the X20 and X40 Appliances, a pair of new products that manage a robotic LTO library and provide from 300TB to multiple petabytes of network storage.

Designed to manage LTO libraries from a wide range of manufacturers, including Dell, HPE, IBM, Overland Storage, Qualstar, Quantum and Spectra Logic, the appliances allow file-based applications to archive seamlessly to LTO cartridges, the company said.

Both are well-suited to video content archiving and support partial file restore, automatic LTO cartridge replication and several other features optimized for use in media, it said.

“These new appliances combine rich functionality optimized for creative media applications and excellent value for money,” said XenData CEO Phil Storey. “For example, a complete system that provides 540 TB of near-line storage costs less than $27,000. This includes the X20 appliance, a 48 slot LTO library and the LTO-8 cartridges.”

The X20 Appliance is a 1RU rack-mounted unit that supports LTO libraries with up to 50 slots and two internal LTO drives. When 12 TB LTO-8 cartridges in a 50-slot library are used, the system has near-line capacity of 600 TB, the company said.

The system, which uses the Windows 10 Professional operating system and connects to a local network via 1GbE or 1GbE, can manage an unlimited number of externalized cartridges. It includes a 14 to 28 TB disk cache that allows files that are frequently accessed to be retained online, XenData said.

The X40 Appliance is a 2 RU rack-mounted unit supporting LTO libraries of unlimited size with up to four internal LTO drives. It runs the Windows Server 2019 operating system, connects to a local network via 1 GbE, 25/100 GbE or 100 GbE and includes a 50 TB RAID cache for frequently accessed files, it said.

Both support automatic LTO cartridge replication, even when managing an LTO library with only one LTO drive. They write to rewritable LTO cartridges using the LTFS interchange format and to unalterable WORM cartridges using the open-standard TAR format. A built-in repack function allows seamless migration of files from one generation of LTO to another, XenData said.

The appliances are cloud-enabled and integration modules are available for Avid Interplay, axle MAM, CatDV, Marquis Parking, Metus MAM, Vizrt’s Viz One and VSN MAM.

Both are immediately available. The X20 Appliance starts at $9,800, and the X40 is priced from $18,200.

More information is available on the company’s website

Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.