The Sun in Baltimore put the wraps on a storage equipment upgrade that has breathed new life into its storage area network project.

The newspaper purchased an L180 digital tape library from Storage Technology Corp. in December 2002 as part of its effort to increase its storage capacity to 5.5 terabytes, enough room to store trillions of words and millions of images.

The Sun began installing the library April 11 and completed the project in mid-May.

StorageTek’s tape library. Photo: Storage Technology Corp.

It more than quadrupled The Sun’s previous tape library storage capacity, said Dennis Downing, network analyst at The Sun.

“The reason for upgrade was that the previous (tape device) could not be part of an enterprise storage (system)” capable of moving data back and forth at sufficient speeds, said Downing. “In doing the research and homework, our data showed us that (the L180) had the (capacity and data throughput) that is capable of doing what we needed to do.”

The newspaper (Monday-Tuesday, 236,506; Wednesday-Saturday, 304,244; Sunday, 470,014) already manages more than 2TB of data. Downing said The Sun adds another 1TB of data each year.

The tape library features drives that can store data at rates of up to 2 gigabits per second through specialized Fibre Channel interfaces. The interfaces allow The Sun to link the library to its storage area network, or SAN, an architecture that allows myriad devices to transfer data through a high-speed network.

Downing said 24 departments and 11 remote locations funnel data to the tape library.

Data is divided into two categories: production and management information, Downing said. While the majority of data is now management information, workflow data is increasing.

The library’s speed enables users to access long-term records much more quickly, Downing said, citing as an example classified ad reps who may need to “get to that data in a short period of time because it will have to be done while they are on the telephone.”

The L180 tape library is part of the newspaper's SAN, which includes five LTO Fibre drives connected to dual Brocade Silkworm switches.

Data is transferred via The Sun’s existing network and managed by a switch, manufactured by Nishan Systems, that permits storage data to flow through the same network as live production information. Storage management is provided by an application developed by Veritas Corp.

Downing said the addition of the tape library is part of a continuous strategy by The Sun to maintain enough storage capacity to support its operations.

“There are other phases that we will add to it,” he said. “We will add (data) directors, we’ll add additional switches and consolidate servers into the network.”