Ultera Systems Inc., a leading provider of high-performance virtual tape libraries, has achieved full certification from ARAM Systems Ltd. under which the Calgary-based company will support the Ultera Mirage Data Recorder (MDR) with the ARAM Aries system.


The MDR is designed for real-time data acquisition in mission-critical operations where repeating the test becomes cost- or time-prohibitive. It eliminates problems associated with traditional tape drives by replacing tape drives and cartridges with two high-performance disk drives in removable canisters.


The MDR features built-in redundancy to ensure recording continues if either drive fails. Once data is recorded, automatic write protection prevents accidental data erasure. For extra protection, the identical tape volumes stored on transportable hard drives allow field crew to take one drive to the base camp for processing and/or archiving to conventional tape cartridges while retaining the other drive as backup. The capability to create a tape copy quickly and easily directly from disk instead of going through a server is a real benefit.


The MDR’s high-capacity disks permit companies to store more data on a single volume. A single MDR disk is equivalent to up to 70 tape cartridges. Each drive can be configured to accept 10 to 70 IBM 3590 tapes or up to seven LTO format tape cartridges.


The Mirage Data Recorder is an addition to Ultera’s family of Mirage Virtual Tape technologies and is available in a three-bay tower or 2U rack mount configuration. Each includes an MDR controller, one tape drive archive port and two disk modules with 146GB/300GB/750GB removable disks.

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