Iomega boosts backup drives

Storage firm Iomega will this week introduce its Rev drive peripheral, which can store up to 35GB of uncompressed data on removable disk cartridges.

The drive offers companies a cost- effective and more convenient alternative to tape for backing up both client and server systems, according to Iomega.

The Rev drive, shipping this week, is based on hard disk technology, making it much faster than alternatives such as DDS tape, Iomega said. "People use tape for backups, but they don't like it because it takes a long time and is also slow when restoring data. Rev is very fast, but the media is also inexpensive," said Iomega's director of product management, Peter Wharton. Each 35GB cartridge costs £39 + VAT.

The Rev drive is shipping first in two versions; one with an Atapi interface to fit inside a 3.5in PC drive bay, and the other an external version with a USB 2.0 interface. A FireWire version is planned for June or July, and SCSI and Serial ATA (Sata) versions are due in September.

Wharton said that storage library maker BDT is to ship an autoloader product based on Iomega's Rev technology. BDT makes autoloaders for many enterprise vendors, including HP, IBM, Quantum and ADIC. "This means that a lot of companies will end up having Rev in their datacentre," Wharton said.

The Rev drive ships with Iomega's Automatic Backup tool that lets users choose how often backups are performed, from once a day to every time a file changes, Iomega said. The USB 2.0 Rev drive costs £238 + VAT, while the Atapi Rev drive costs £229 + VAT.

In a separate initiative, Fujitsu Europe last week released a portable magneto-optical (MO) drive aimed at professionals that require mobile storage and need to archive data.

The DynaMO 1300 U2 Pocket drive, available now, stores up to 1.3GB on 3.5in MO media, but weighs just 410g and can be carried in a jacket pocket, according to Fujitsu. MO drives are often used for archiving as the disks have a longer life than other media. The DynaMO 1300 U2 Pocket drive connects to a PC or laptop via a USB 2.0 connection and does not need a separate power supply. The drive costs £130.