MagStor announces integrated Thunderbolt 3 RAID and LTO ingest-to-archive storage solution for digital workflows

Columbus, OH — MagStor, a recognized leader in tape storage solutions for Media & Entertainment customers, today announced availability of the world’s first Thunderbolt 3 fully integrated portable LTO RAID Unit (LRU) multi-tier storage solution

The LRU is a Thunderbolt RAID and LTO tape archiving solution for digital workflows. Content can be offloaded from cameras to high-speed RAID on-set or at the end of the day, and then the raw footage or completed projects can be archived to LTO tape media for long-term safeguarding. The LRU comes in a portable form factor with a carrying handle, making it ideal for both on-set and post-production environments.

LRU units support up to 6 SATA SSD Drives with hardware-controlled RAID, enabling blazing fast offloading of video from camera cards at up to 2400 MB/s. Configurations are available with LTO-7, LTO-8 and LTO-9 half-height drives, with the LTO-9 version offering 18TB of native cartridge capacity and read/write speeds of up to 300MB/s for seamless archiving of video content.

LRU also supports the Linear Tape File System (LTFS), which mounts the tape drive in the same way as a disk drive, enabling simple drag-and-drop access to the tape cartridge. All LRU configurations ship with a free license for Hedge Canister LTFS archiving software.

 “Today’s Digital Imaging Technicians and Content Creators need a high performance, yet easy-to-use storage solution that helps them respect the 3-2-1 principle of protecting video content (3 copies of your data, on 2 different media, with 1 copy off-site)”, said Dmitri Troia, MagStor’s Chief Executive. “The 3-2-1 principle is becoming increasingly widespread in the video production world. Netflix, for example, now requires it of its production partners*. The MagStor LTO RAID Unit is an answer to those requirements, providing an easy way of getting raw footage or completed projects onto LTO media as quickly as possible.”

Key Features

  • MagStor’s patented Thunderbolt-3 to LTO design with SSD RAID*
  • Hardware based RAID using a single TB3 interface with previously unattainable ingest speeds to LTO
  • Supports up to 6 SATA SSD Drives with RAID levels 0,1,3,5,6,10 (add your own drives, or choose a preconfigured model)
  • Dual Core ARM A15 1.6GHz processor with RAID On Chip
  • 8GB DDR4-2666 cache memory with ECC protection
  • Broad operating support including macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and VMware
  • Ships with Hedge Canister LTFS Software and supports other leading LTFS archiving and backup software applications
  • Compatible with NanoPure Media™
  • 3 year parts and labor RTD warranty

Pricing and Availability

LTO RAID Units are available now from MagStor’s website and from their network of authorized resellers and distributors. MSRP’s start at $5,399.

Additional Resources

https://magstor.com/collections/thunderbolt-3

* Netflix's Production Best Practices Guide: https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000581207-Production-Assets-Data-Management

* US Patent: 11,200,194