Tertiary Storage: Current Status and Future Trends

This report summarizes current state of the art in tertiary storage systems.We begin with a comprehensive discussion of magnetic tape and optical storagetechnologies. This is followed by a classification of commercial productsbased on their performance characteristics. Our analysis of product dataindicates that in contrast to disk technology, tertiary storage products havesignificant variablility in terms of data transfer rates as well as otherperformance figures. We then summarize efforts in the areas of operatingsystems, databases and advanced applications to integrate tertiary storage. Wepoint out that different assumptions about the underlying technology result inentirely different algorithms and system design. We conclude the report with aspeculation of future trends.