An Optical or Magnetic Solution

If your operation intends to use the library in an on-line (or near on-line) storage mode, the speed of access to a given file is often of prime importance, especially if used in a news or video-on-demand operation. In some types of applications, optical jukeboxes are considered because of that medium's fast, random file access capability. If your application needs to swap disks quickly (as in a few seconds), the jukeboxes' physical operations should not adversely affect overall access speed. However, as with any benefit there comes a trade-off, optical jukeboxes have a high media cost per megabyte and have a relatively slow transfer rate.

Looking at the other side, if sequential file access (as in archiving, backup and restore) or moderate file access times (less than a minute or two) are acceptable, tape technology will provide a greater value for the cost. Tape libraries are used almost universally for backup and archiving of data, especially when there is a mixture of media lengths and large sets of files (commercials, promotional material, interstitials and programs.) Tape technologies have a faster transfer rate and...