PoINT Expands S3-to-Tape Solution with LTFS Support

With the latest update to its trusted S3 object storage solution for tape, PoINT Software & Systems now provides optional LTFS format support.The software product PoINT Archival Gateway is an object storage solution that enables data archiving to tape media via the standardized S3 interface.

No large disk caches are required. In addition to PoINT’s proprietary, optimized data format, the new version can write the standardized LTFS format. The mixed use of both formats for different datasets is also supported.

The new version of PoINT Archival Gateway allows customers to select the format in which they want to write data sets to their tapes. When accessing data via PoINT Archival Gateway, all S3 features, such as versioning, are fully supported.

Tape media in the LTFS format are independent of the writing software and can be read on any LTFS-compatible system. In PoINT’s LTFS implementation, data objects are visible and readable as individual files directly, without any intermediary steps such as containers.

As an alternative, PoINT’s proprietary tape media offers maximum performance and efficiency, as well as optional Erasure Coding. As before, PoINT provides a format specification and a copy program in source code for its proprietary format upon request. This enables customers to independently restore their data objects with this format, regardless of PoINT.

Customers with a valid support contract are entitled to an upgrade with LTFS support at no charge.