The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies updated their roadmap to extend the LTO Ultrium magnetic tape storage standard through 14 generations.
For more information visit: www.lto.org
Unedited press release follows:
LTO Program Announces Extension to the LTO Tape Technology Roadmap to Generation 14
Extended Roadmap Calls for Plans to Surpass 1.4 Petabytes of Compressed Capacity Per Tape
SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, International Business Machines Corporation, and Quantum Corporation, today released an updated LTO tape technology roadmap that extends the LTO Ultrium standard through 14 generations. The roadmap calls for tape capacities to double with each new generation, with LTO-14 delivering up to 1,440 TB* (1.44 PB) per tape. Once introduced, LTO-14 will surpass the capacity of current LTO-9 cartridges by 32 times.
“LTO tape is more relevant than ever as low-cost, sustainable storage for long-term data archiving, and as a secure data storage option for strengthening cybersecurity,” says Sam Werner, VP, Storage Product Management at IBM. “With specifications now defined through generation 14, LTO tape is poised to support rapid and accelerating data growth. It offers organizations a sustainable, reliable, and low-cost solution to protect and store their critical business data.”
The LTO Program first released its LTO Ultrium standard in 2000 with a capacity of 200 GB per cartridge compressed. Two decades later, the LTO Program released LTO generation 9, which supports tape cartridge storage compressed capacity of up to 45 TB* and tape drive data transfer rates of up to 1,000 MB/second*. At less than $0.01 per gigabyte, LTO has established itself as the storage medium of choice for long-term data archiving both on-premises and in the cloud.
“According to IDC data, the magnetic tape market grew at robust 10.5% in 2021, driven by the needs to defend against ransomware, store large volumes of data at low-cost, as well as data centers pivoting to ‘green’ technologies,” said Phil Goodwin, Research Vice President, IDC. “Moreover, data volumes continue to double every two to three years. Multi-petabyte implementations have become commonplace. This LTO roadmap, out to Generation 14 with more than 1 PB of compressed capacity per cartridge, illustrates how LTO technology will continue advancing to meet organizations’ large capacity storage needs for years to come.”
The record-breaking LTO media capacity shipments of 2021 highlight how LTO tape has seen renewed adoption and interest among organizations due to its many attributes, including: the air-gapped protection it offers against ransomware, the benefits it brings to organizations’ Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) initiatives, and its reliability and low cost as compared with other data storage options.
Additional information on the LTO Technology Roadmap can be found at www.lto.org, as well as by following the LTO Program on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Linear Tape-Open (LTO)
The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and continuously enhanced by technology providers Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation (and their predecessors) to help address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. This ultra-high capacity generation of tape storage products is designed to deliver outstanding performance, capacity and reliability combining the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi-directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout, and error correction.
The LTO Ultrium format has a well-defined roadmap for growth and scalability. The roadmap represents intentions and goals only and is subject to change or withdrawal. There is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. The roadmap is intended to outline a general direction of technology and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision. Format compliance verification is vital to meet the free-interchange objectives that are at the core of the LTO Program. Ultrium tape mechanism and tape cartridge interchange specifications are available on a licensed basis. For additional information on the LTO Program, visit www.lto.org.
- Assumes a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives.