I arrived in Colorado eager to participate in Spectra Logic’s Summit, “Forever Data 2013.” Upon checking into my hotel and settling in, I was soon whisked away to Spectra Logic HQ. The evening was filled with Colorado flair of camaraderie; music from The Backline, a local band; catered food paired with micro-brews by Twisted Pine Brewing Co. and, of course, data storage.

After a lovely dinner, I headed into the back of the HQ to see the T-Finity, “the world’s highest capacity data storage system,” according to Spectra Logic. In fact, this one piece of equipment can hold approximately 500,000 Terabytes of data!

Pretty impressive, but what about the cloud? Wouldn’t it be easier, just as safe and effective to put data there?

Speaking with Yvonne Walker, alliance manager, Active Archive Alliance, I learned a little about cloud data storage versus large-scale, long-term data storage.

“When you send data to the cloud, which is a storage pool, there are tiers of storage backed by taped, digital storage; however, if you don’t have a data center on site, you typically have to pay to retrieve that data,” explained Walker.

So, data that needs to be stored and not accessed frequently would do great in cloud storage, but data that is frequently accessed should be saved using large-scale, long-term storage solutions, enabling data retrieval anytime.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the evening was actually touring the manufacturing facility where Spectra Logic makes their data storage solutions. Walking through, I saw the individual pieces, like base assemblies, Terapac assemblies and the functioning robotics, that when put together form the data storage products Spectra has to offer.

Entering a temperature-controlled room, my tour group was introduced to the carbide cleaning drive, a modified tape drive with a carbide blade. Each tape is run across the blade to clean off any unwanted fragments, ensuring debris-free media and allowing the system to function at peak performance.

Concluding the tour as well as my evening, I can see that Spectra Logic is focused on reliable data storage as well as the integrity of data, yet this is only a sampling of what is to come. Tomorrow my schedule is full of presentations by Spectra Logic executives and end users who will dive deeper into data storage, trends, etc.