FUJIFILM INSIGHTS BLOG

By Kara Buzzeo

“These are unprecedented times,” a phrase we all have heard so many times, we might have even started saying it in our sleep. Throughout these unprecedented times, Fujifilm has made a commitment to doing its part to combat the uncertainty, chaos, and panic caused by COVID-19.

On March 30th, just 20 days after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, Fujifilm started its phase III clinical trials in Japan, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of influenza antiviral drug “Avigan”* for patients with COVID-19.

Since then, FUJIFILM Pharmaceuticals U.S.A, Inc. initiated a phase II clinical trial of Avigan in the  U.S. for patients with COVID-19. Patients will be enrolled in the study at three Massachusetts area hospitals.

FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A, Inc. (FRMU) has been able to assist nearby hospitals by providing logistics support during this time, storing the PPE in secure, safe locations.

One of the most outstanding moments during this time of crisis was our employees’ desire to contribute. Inspired by acts of kindness seen around the world and within the organization, FRMU employees wanted to make sure that they were doing their part to help their communities. At the Bedford manufacturing plant, employees took the initiative to manufacture face shields that were then donated to hospitals in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington D.C. Normally, every year FRMU hosts a kick-off meeting where employee appreciation gifts are given out, however this year, the money was allocated to Amazing Grace Food Pantry in Middletown, CT to aid in helping families put food on the table during this difficult time.

Through collaboration, technology, and our collective expertise, we will continue to work towards improving human health and helping bring the pandemic to an end.

* Avigan is not FDA approved in the United States.

By Peter Faulhaber

May 7, 2020

I’ve become accustomed to odd looks and lots of questions when I meet new people and tell them I’m in the data tape business. “Really? Tape? In 2020?” is a common response.

I can forgive some people — those who last touched a consumer VHS tape or audiocassette in the late 90s or early 2000s. I’ve come to really enjoy expanding their perspective, though, when I tell them that tape is a major workhorse in “the cloud” and that most of the household-name technology and internet companies are tape users. Business continuity, including several data protection applications is a big part of the reason why, along with tape’s low total cost of ownership and low energy consumption. I think we can all agree that economics and preserving the environment is key to continuity in its own right!

Information is Currency in the Zettabye Age
The worldwide datasphere is currently around 35 Zettabytes (that’s 35 billion Terabytes) and expected to be 175 ZB by 2025 — an estimated annual compound growth rate of 30%.  The odds are good you’re seeing a similar rate of data explosion in your own business. Everything today is born digital, not just “structured” data like databases but “unstructured” data such as spreadsheets, documents, presentations, video, audio and photographs. Add to that the appliances and devices in the “Internet of Things” — smart vehicles, smart planes, smart phones, smart homes, factories and cities. Then add to the mix artificial intelligence, machine learning, ecommerce, email, social media, gaming, surveillance, VR, mobile and more – you can see the path we’re on.

We keep all this data around for years and sometimes decades because it is potentially valuable enough to justify archiving or keeping online in an active archive.  Whether your business relies on archival video footage or photos, harvests data for sale to outside parties or uses information for internal streamlining, strategy, or planning, it’s become impossible to even imagine a modern business without data that is increasing in value.

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April 29, 2020

Ransomware continues to threaten the security of enterprise IT infrastructures. In this Fujifilm Summit video, storage analyst George Crump talks to IBM’s Chris Bontempo about how artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping improve cybersecurity by identifying and stopping potential threats.

Watch the video here:

April 15, 2020

According to IDC, data growth will reach 175 Zettabytes by 2025. Among that data, approximately 7.5 ZB will be archived or stored.

In this Fujifilm Summit video, storage analyst George Crump talks to IBM’s Shawn Brume about the importance of getting the right data and making sure it is being stored in the right way.

Watch the video here.

By Rich Gadomski

April 9, 2020

We are living in unprecedented times, but as we navigate through this global crisis together, data storage managers can continue to count on tape to store and protect their data. Just recently, the State of Massachusetts deemed FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A’s  Bedford manufacturing facility as an essential business amidst statewide COVID-19 shutdowns.  Indeed, data tape is essential in the battle against this pandemic.

Did you know that hundreds of healthcare providers, Federal Government agencies, pharmaceuticals, and researchers rely on modern data tape as a key component in their data retention and protection strategy, including business continuity and disaster recovery? Household names like the CDC, NIH, FDA, United Health, Novartis, Merck, Pfizer, MIT, Regeneron, Gilead, and many more. And we can’t forget about the hyperscalers that provide tape-based data storage services to thousands more in the healthcare-related industries.

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March 25, 2020

To Our Valued Customers:

First and foremost, I trust that you and your family are well during this unprecedented pandemic.

On March 23, 2020, Charles D. Baker, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, issued COVID-19 Executive Order No. 13.  The Executive Order requires all businesses and organizations that do not provide “Essential Services” to close their physical workplaces and facilities to workers, customers and the public as of Tuesday, March 24th at noon until Tuesday, April 7th at noon.

Fujifilm is deemed to provide Essential Services and is therefore authorized under the Executive Order to continue operations at its Bedford, Massachusetts facility. Specifically, Fujifilm’s Bedford facility provides services that fall under the Communications and Information Technology category set forth in the Executive Order.

While our Bedford manufacturing facility remains open and operational, I can assure you that the Fujifilm management team is taking all necessary actions and precautions to ensure the health and safety of our workers during these unprecedented times.

Accordingly, and pursuant to Section 1 of the Executive Order, Fujifilm has put measures in place to ensure workers comply with social distancing protocols and good hygiene practices consistent with Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s guidance. In addition, to help minimize the time that our workers are away from home, we are reducing the number of our weekly production days during the period from March 24th to April 7th or until further instructed by Executive Order. We appreciate your understanding and patience if this results in longer than normal lead times to fulfill your orders.

These are challenging times for all of us. Our workers and their families, our communities, and our local businesses are all being affected and forced to adapt to this evolving crisis. At Fujifilm, we remain optimistic and focused. We are committed to working through each challenge safely and persevering through adversity so that we can continue to deliver innovative products and solutions to you, our valued customers, and provide a safe working environment for our team.

We continue to regularly monitor this ever-evolving situation, and will continue to comply with all advisories and mandates from the federal and state governments.  Should you have any questions or need further information, please contact me or your FUJIFILM Sales Representative.

We wish you and your families good health.

Sincerely,

Peter Faulhaber
President and CEO
FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A., Inc.

By Rich Gadomski

March 19, 2020

As LTO-8 drives and media are increasingly deployed and widely available, the value proposition of LTO-8 is being confirmed by customers and it’s a pretty impressive story.

In the case of a major high-performance computing (HPC) customer who had been using LTO-6 previously for their archive, the jump to LTO-8 has done wonders for their available capacity. With approximately 7,000 slots in their library, fully loaded with LTO-6 media at 2.5TB each yielded a total native storage capacity of 17.5 PB. Migrating to LTO-8 drives and eventually converting those slots to LTO-8 media at 12.0 TB gives them up to a massive 84 PBs, almost a 5X increase. That’s lots of room to scale as needed!

Performance also gets a big boost as LTO-6 drives are rated at 160 MB per second transfer rate compared to LTO-8 drives at 360 MB per second. This means fewer drives are required to meet the same performance objectives. As a result, TCO also gets a major boost as fewer drives, fewer pieces of media and no additional floor space or library frames are required to manage the same amount of data.

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Migrating from one generation to another generation of tape technology may seem like a difficult task. In practice, though, tape migration is relatively straightforward and provides tremendous ROI thanks to each generation’s increase in performance and capacity.

In this video, George Crump of Storage Switzerland talks to Alan Hall of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about the advantages of migrating to tape.

When it comes to data storage spending, knowing your total cost of ownership (TCO) is key. In this video, George Crump, lead analyst at Storage Switzerland talks with Brad Johns of Brad Johns Consulting about the key factors to consider when it comes to TCO. This includes CapEx costs such as hardware and license fees; OpEx costs such as energy, network costs, staff needed to manage the storage; and technology upgrades/new equipment over time. They also discuss how to use a free TCO Calculator to calculate 5- and 10-year scenarios for the Total Cost of Ownership when using automated tape storage, disk-based and cloud-based archive storage.

View the full video and access the free TCO Calculator here: https://datastorage-na.fujifilm.com/tco-tool/

IT organizations hate licensing software based on capacity. They despise it with a passion for the simple reason that data is growing exponentially, a fact over which they often have little or no control. What rankles them is software licensing that continuously increases in price as the amount of stored data grows. Customers are already paying for the actual storage devices to house the data. But capacity-based software metering means they have to pay for it over again and again and again. It has become common for software licensing to cost more than the actual storage many times over. That doesn’t strike most people as a fair bargain. The software is not working any harder, but the price goes up like clockwork every month or year depending on the subscription frequency and data growth. It’s maddening to the extreme, and IT departments are screaming that it’s unsustainable.

For more information on this topic, check out this white paper: The Atrociously Unfair Data Capacity Tax.