LTO-6 Adopted Faster That LTO-5

The LTO Program technology provider companies Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP, IBM Corp. and Quantum Corp. announced that the adoption rate of LTO-6 tape cartridges is faster than that of the prior generation.

The upward trend in shipments comes as more storage managers, content developers and information technology professionals turn to LTO technology for a safe, reliable and cost-effective storage solution amid the growing amount of data and content that is being generated in the digital era.

According to Coughlin Associates, the required digital storage capacity used in the entertainment industry alone is expected to increase by more than 500% by 2018 (2013 Digital Storage for Media and Entertainment Report, 2013).

"Big data is affecting every organization, regardless of size. However, its impact is even greater in such industries as healthcare, energy exploration and broadcast productions," said Bina Hallman, VP, IBM storage systems product management. "The massive data volumes generated, shared and stored in industries like these require even greater reliability, security, and accessibility. The LTO Program has been on the forefront of providing technology that offers a cost effective method for protecting, archiving and easily retrieving large amounts of data to help organizations mitigate risk, enhance resiliency, and improve productivity."

LTO technology also continues to lead the tape storage industry as it surpasses new milestones. According to a recent study by IDC (Worldwide Tape QView, April 2013), more than 4.4 million LTO drives have been shipped since the beginning of the program (through year-end 2012).

Another milestone was reached as the 225 millionth LTO cartridge was shipped, according to Santa Clara Consulting Group (historic data). The aggregate capacity of these cartridges represents the potential of more than 90,000PB of data protected and retained using LTO technology.

Despite the increased uptake in the newest generation of LTO tape, the previous LTO-5, introduced three years ago, remains popular as drive shipments maintained double-digit growth over the prior year.

"LTO technology continues to be, by far, the strongest performer in the tape industry," said Joel Tax, Santa Clara Consulting Group. "With the recent introduction of LTO-6 technology, we anticipate this trend to continue."

LTO-6 products have been available since fourth quarter last year and support a tape cartridge storage capacity of up to 6.25TB – assuming a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives – which is more than twice the compressed capacity over the previous generation. LTO-6 drives and tapes also feature data transfer rates of up to 400MB/s with compression, translating to more than 1.4TB of compressed data per hour. As with previous generations, LTO-6 drives provide backward compatibility with the ability to read and write LTO Generation 5 cartridges and read LTO-4 cartridges.

In addition, the LTO-6 format includes a partitioning functionality, first introduced in LTO-5 technology, enabling users to present a tape-based file system with the use of the LTFS. With continued support for hardware-based encryption and WORM functionality, LTO Ultrium Generation 6 tape technology is designed to provide a balance of performance, capacity, compatibility and cost control and to support a range of safe, secure and portable storage options for backup and archive.

Added Hallman: "While new applications for the use of data continue to be introduced at a rapid pace, LTO technology is the one constant when it comes to a cost-effective, reliable and compatible solution to retain and protect this data."

The LTO Program will be presenting and demonstrating LTO technology to data managers at IBC in Amsterdam, SEG in Houston, TX, SNW Fall in Long Beach, CA, and Supercomputing in Denver, CO.