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Spectra Logic today announced availability of Spectra Storage Reclaim, a packaged combination of analysis software, data movers, BlackPearl object storage, tape, and services that finds inactive unstructured data on flash and disk arrays and moves it to tape so the primary capacity can go back to active workloads. The pitch is timed to the flash market: Spectra cites contract prices up 55 to 60 percent in the first quarter of 2026 and another 70 to 75 percent in the second, with Gartner expecting a rise of almost 250 percent year over year in the second half. Four Steps From Analysis to Reclaimed Capacity Storage Reclaim runs in four steps. Analyze is a read-only pass over the file systems that measures how much data is inactive or infrequently accessed by age and access pattern, using what Spectra calls the Storage Analyzer. Identify applies policies, built on access, retention, and business rules, to decide which files qualify to leave flash and disk. Move and Manage moves that data to the protected tier while keeping it visible, accessible, and recallable from the original environment. Reclaim returns the freed flash and disk capacity to active workloads, AI, and future growth. The data mover is a choice. Spectra’s own StorCycle handles policy-based movement, and the Storage Reclaim ecosystem also approves Komprise, Starfish Storage, and rclone, so a shop already running one of those keeps its tooling. The destination is a Spectra BlackPearl Object Gateway, which presents S3-compatible access and places data across flash, disk, and tape by policy, in front of Spectra tape storage for long-term retention with a physical air gap and no power draw for media at rest. Six Turnkey Configurations From 1PB to 24PB Spectra sells Storage Reclaim as six pre-sized configurations that bundle software, hardware, implementation, and support. The entry point is 1.05PB in a single Spectra Stack library with two half-height LTO-9 drives, and the range runs through 2.1PB and 3.0PB Stack configurations to 5.1PB, 8.1PB, and 24.3PB builds on a Spectra Cube with six to sixteen full-height drives. Spectra notes that configuration selection should be validated for the environment. Each configuration includes a storage assessment with a written analysis report, solution planning, installation, and three years of 5×9 next-business-day support. Spectra also offers a Storage Reclaim calculator to estimate reclaimable capacity before an assessment, and its solution brief cites research putting as much as 83 percent of primary capacity in inactive data that would qualify to move, a figure Spectra attributes to a September Ctera report. The Flash Argument “Organizations have traditionally responded to growing storage requirements by buying more capacity. But the cheapest flash you’ll ever buy is the flash you already own,” said Nathan Thompson, CEO of Spectra Logic. “Storage Reclaim shows organizations what is consuming their existing storage capacity and moves data that no longer requires premium performance. With an ecosystem that includes Komprise, Starfish Storage, and rclone, customers can reclaim that capacity using the approach that best fits their environment.” The product is aimed at infrastructure teams with a capacity, refresh, or budget decision in front of them, as a step before designing or buying more primary storage. That is a reasonable place to be in a year when flash allocation has become a procurement problem for AI clouds and enterprises alike, and tape media is not riding the NAND price curve. Whether a given environment has 83 percent or 20 percent of its flash holding cold files is what the read-only analysis step is there to answer.
document fetched 2026-10-28 02:51 · canonical https://storagereview.com/news/spectra-logic-storage-reclaim-tape-blackpearl-six-configurations-1pb-24pb