Archives : 2010 : February

RDX Street Pricing – Very Competitive!

RDX Street Pricing – Very Competitive! There was recent blog posting on Drunken Data by Jon Toigo http://www.drunkendata.com/?p=2884 Jon saw the customer value in the ruggedized RDX dock and cartridge along with the portability and scalability features, but felt that RDX media prices were high.

I checked around online and found the Provantage web site customers can purchase a 500GB RDX dock and cartage for $248.14 which equates to $.49/GB. http://www.provantage.com/imation-27127~73MDS2V2.htm John’s blog quotes LTO tape costs .44/GB which is comparable to the RDX drives at .49/GB. Dell’s web site sells a LTO-3 Tape drive for $1999 and a 400GB tape cartridge for $30.99, the total tape solution costs $2029.99 which equates to $5.07/GB.

So customers can purchase almost 10 additional RDX cartridges of RDX storage 5TBs more storage for the same cost as an LTO tape drive with similar capacity, AND get all the benefits ruggedness, portability, and scalability. Most small medium businesses, legal, retail, medical, dental offices, construction, video production, schools, have less than 5.5TB of data, which can be easily backed-up and archived on RDX docks and cartridges at a lower cost then buying an LTO drive.

Customer’s should look at the total “STREET PRICE” of RDX solutions and benefit from easy backup, durable archive and FAST data recovery.

Accidents can Happen

While all HDDs should be handled with care, accidents do happen – HDDs can be knocked off the table, banged around in your briefcase, dropped by the FedEx guy, etc.  In order to ensure that precious data is not at risk, a portable HDD solution needs to be protected.

Portability is a key feature of RDX cartridges, but portability means little if the cartridge is not rugged enough to sustain a realistic drop. If a cartridge is dropped, the cartridge should protect the hard drive well enough so that the drive works properly and data can be retrieved.

Some companies offer a padded suitcase to protect a cartridge, but this does not address many risks.  With RDX, we had a better idea:  put the HDD in a ruggedized cartridge that is designed to survive most real world abuses. RDX cartridges are designed to provide significant protection in case they are dropped onto a hard surface.

How? RDX Drives have several rugged features, including:
•       Heads that retract from the media so no damage occurs, a high tolerance to shifting the disks on the motor and a fluid dynamic bearing motor that tolerates shock events well
•       The mobile hard drive is shock mounted with a unique combination of materials and geometry to reduce the impact on the hard drive if it dropped.
•       The cartridge shell is made of high strength plastics that preserve the mechanical integrity of the system.

An RDX cartridge has a 99% survival rate at 1 meter. In applications where removable media is used for data protection, disaster recovery and long-term archival storage, RDX technology provides a robust solution with greatly increased data reliability over other solutions.

Steve Georgis

What does RDX technology provide in practical applications beyond the data center?

RDX storage technology is well known as a superior way to provide simple, easy, cost-effective backup and archiving of data with an effective data recovery strategy.

But, what does RDX technology provide in practical applications beyond the data center? The inherent nature of the features and benefits extend the use beyond the generic function of backup and recovery to providing application solutions for businesses where businesses save time, money and complexity of everyday tasks. Simply stated RDX technology provides these benefits to data backup, retention, protection and recovery: Portability, Durability, Flexible Capacity, Scalability, Random / Sequential Access, Longevity, and ease of use.

As applied in the video production industry these benefits can streamline the complex tasks involved in transfer of data among multiple partners for multiple functions outside the network. Portability, Durability and Flexible capacity are key advantages.

For example motion picture production process involves multiple partners:  production companies, editing companies, post-production companies, and distribution companies.  And within each of these partners there are additional specialties for example post production includes computer-based color correction, brightness-level, contrast ratios, graphics, animation, sound and looping; many individuals are involved and sharing the video data. The ability to quickly create multiple copies of large amounts of video data and distribute a durable cartridge, without worry of damage (the cartridges can easily be shipped via a fedex envelope or other transport), all streamlines the process for each individual working on the project. We have more on under the solutions section on the website and also information from Filmworks/FX in our latest press release if you want to see how this may relate to your business.

Questions? Comment? Let us know.

Steve Georgis