Tape Device Recommendations

[Guest.Visitor]

For lack of a hardware forum, I'm posting here. I'm currently using 2 3570 B11's (4 drives). I'm backing up approx. 150 gb nightly and 310 gb for entire system save. The system save is taking approx. 12 hours. We can no longer tolerate the downtime. Therefore, I'm looking at new tape units. I have quotes for 3590-H11, 3592-J1A (pricey) and 3582-L23. I want to stay with IBM products but have heard about frequent problems with the LTO units and my first priority is reliability. Certainly cost is a factor however, an unreliable device can boost cost sky high. Any recommendations good or bad would be appreciated. Thanks, Kim

[dacust]

We use older 3580-001 LTO's on our 4 largest boxes (6390 8mm's on all the rest). No reliability problems (2-3 years?). We love 'em. We also use some Magstar's (3570?) that constantly require maintenance. The magstar's are now mostly dormant, having been replaced by the LTO's. The LTO tapes are still rather expensive, about $75 each last time we bought (1 year ago?). Our rotation calls for 40 tapes per machine... Maybe they are under $50, now. -dan