The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies have announced the extension of the LTO Ultrium roadmap with new product generations: LTO-7 and LTO-8. The new product generations show native capacities of up to 12.8TB for LTO-8 or 32TB with enhanced data compression functionality. The new roadmap also indicates that LTO data transfer rates are anticipated to increase by 50% with each new generation, delivering up to 4.2TB per hours compressed transfer rates for LTO-8.
Although the LTO Ultrium Generation 6 format is still in development (with targeted availability of mid 2013), the LTO Technology Provider Companies (TPCs) have provided the opportunity for licensees to gain insight on the emerging tape specification through a series of regular discussions surrounding its development. This visibility into the specification is intended to enhance licensee product development programs.
Current plans for specifications for LTO Generation 6 include:
- Cartridge capacity of up to 8 TB (3.2Tb native with improved compression algorithm) – almost triple the capacity over the previous generation.
- Tape drive data transfer rates of up to 525 MB per second (210Mb/sec native).
- Backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with LTO Ultrium 5 cartridges, and backwards-compatible read capabilities with LTO Ultrium 4 cartridges, helping to protect investments and ease implementation.
- Data encryption to help protect data in transition.
- Write Once Read Many (WORM) support to help address data security and compliance needs.
- Dual partitioning feature, introduced in Generation 5, which when utilized by the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) specification can help provide faster data access and improve data management.
So what’s the significance of this? A few key points:
With key vendors such as HP and IBM committed to a roadmap pushing out a number of years, it is clear that tape (and specifically LTO) remain strategic.
- Future upgrades will become available
- Backward compatibility (read/write 1 generations and read 2 generations is committed)
- Competition associated with an open standard will continue to drive quality and value
Lynx was an early adopter of LTO Ultrium tape technology, believing all the fundamentals pointed to it being the best strategic path. Today, the Lynx LTO Ultrium solutions provide a compelling opportunity for our Reseller partners:
- Universal Connect
- Compatible with most backup applications
- Compatible with most systems
- Vendor neutral
- A broad spectrum of solutions
- Drives, autoloaders and libraries
- SCSI, SAS and fibre connection options
- LTO Ultrium 2, 3, 4 and 5
- Based on HP’s market leading technologies
- Backed by the very highest level of capabilities and support
- Very cost effective
- Don’t carry the burden of heavy marketing overheads
Please call for assistance with selecting the appropriate solution and pricing.
