OWC shipping Mercury Pro LTO backup solution with new ArGest software

Credit: OWC

OWC is now bundling its Mercury Pro LTO tape storage and archiving device with ArGest Backup software, which provides bulk transfer, archive, and storage solutions across Mac, PC, and Linux.

The Mercury Pro LTO is a Thunderbolt 3-based device that allows users to store and archive data on the linear tape-open format. According to OWC, tape-based data storage or archival is cheaper and longer-lasting than other solutions.

Previously bundled with myLTO software, OWC has announced that the Mercury Pro LTO now comes with ArGest Backup software that provides "fast, easy drag and drop assessment management utilizing the highly revered and reliable BRU archival format."

The company that maintains the device-agnostic BRU format was acquired by OWC back in November 2020. BRU archival is notable because data created on a BRU platform can be read or restored from any other platform.

OWC says the BRU-powered ArGest Backup software is the fastest backup and archiving solution on the market. Users can expect to backup or archive data to LTO-7 or LTO-8 tapes at real-world speeds up to 300MB/s. ArGest also provides top-class error recovery and restoration features.

Credit: OWC

The standard Mercury Pro LTO devices ship with ArGest Backup Desktop Edition, which is designed for smaller teams or personal use. Customers can also upgrade to Workstation or Producer editions, which feature additional tape drives and other archival features.

OWC Mercury Pro LTO is available to order from MacSales.com for $4,599. It's bundled with ArGest Backup, an LTO-8 tape, and a cleaning cartridge. Additionally, ArGest Backup is available to purchase separately for $249 from OWC's website.

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3 Comments

rcfa

said about 2 years ago

Who can afford backup at these prices?

As mass storage capacities go up, proper backup has become unaffordable. People rely on some levels of redundancy, which can quickly go awry, e.g. as corrupt data is replicated and there’s no backup to fall back on.

So even having two RAID-6 setups geographically separated, kept in sync by rsync or something similar, doesn’t really replace a backup. Keeping snapshots on a COW file system is a partial solution, but no full replacement.

Backup drive, without the media, costing a multiple of the computer being backed up, is a hard sell except where such backups are legally mandated, and thus “price is no object, customers must pay directly or indirectly”

mknelson

said about 2 years ago

rcfa said:

Who can afford backup at these prices?

As mass storage capacities go up, proper backup has become unaffordable. People rely on some levels of redundancy, which can quickly go awry, e.g. as corrupt data is replicated and there’s no backup to fall back on.

So even having two RAID-6 setups geographically separated, kept in sync by rsync or something similar, doesn’t really replace a backup. Keeping snapshots on a COW file system is a partial solution, but no full replacement.

Backup drive, without the media, costing a multiple of the computer being backed up, is a hard sell except where such backups are legally mandated, and thus “price is no object, customers must pay directly or indirectly”

This is business backup. The vast majority of home users don't have the quantity of data needed for LTO backups. Businesses who have that kind of volume can afford it.

*unless you have an archive of torrents? That's a different problem. Especially when you get caught. 😅

rezwits

said about 2 years ago

Man 12TB LTO! I miss doing Tape Backups... such a pain but when you had to store stuff that wouldn't be used for 9-12 months (print industry), was so useful! IDK how much a 12TB tape is but for around $200? that's not too bad...

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