LTO Program Introduces Gen10 of Up to 30TB Tape Technology

The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation, have publicly released the specifications of LTO Ultrium format Gen 10, which is available for licensing.

LTO-10 delivers 30TB native capacity (up to 75TB compressed *) with a native data rate of 400MB/s. LTO-10 offers optimized capacity for customers seeking long term retention storage, enabling them to leverage existing infrastructure while enhancing cost-efficiency, cyber-resiliency, and data durability across archival, compliance, and hybrid cloud environments. LTO-10 enhances usability by eliminating the need for media optimization as seen on LTO-9, providing higher bandwidth interfaces compatible with modern networks, and is delivered with quantum-safe encryption certificates.

“Tape is a widely used storage technology across a variety of industries national governments, high energy particle physics, weather forecasting, finance and insurance, media and entertainment. The latest generation of LTO technology effectively builds upon the capabilities of the previous generation to provide organizations with an even more powerful solution for their ever-growing data storage needs,” said Sam Werner, GM, IBM Storage. “LTO-10 is built to set a new bar for storage capacity, data density, and cost efficiency, and also includes post-quantum cryptography certificates for the NIST standardized algorithms that are designed to protect data in this burgeoning era of quantum computing.”

Although LTO-10 does not offer backwards compatibility, it features an new head design intended to improve reliability and performance in itself and for future-gen of LTO drives. LTO-10 is designed to significantly lower the total cost of ownership as a result of its 66.6% increased capacity compared to LTO-9. Additionally, with LTO-10, users can potentially save up to 100s of hours on initial startup by eliminating the media optimization process required in LTO-9. As the world’s first post-quantum cryptography ready tape drive, LTO-10 also provides advanced security during key exchange for dependable data encryption.

“Tape continues to deliver some of the best value in data storage, combining low costs with minimal energy use,” said Phil Goodwin, research VP, infrastructure software platforms, IDC. “In addition, with the vast cyber threat landscape expanding, tape remains an ideal solution for keeping data safe and protected. The many benefits of this technology should not be overlooked as tape advances and organizations reconfigure their data architectures for the modern era.”

Since the first LTO products were brought to market, over 5.7 million drives, 383 million cartridges, and 649 billion GB of media capacity have been shipped, making LTO Ultrium the most successful tape format in history.

^(*) Assumes a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives.