Is HPE LTO Data Tape Cartridge still useful? The Value of Tape

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is a pioneering open standards magnetic tape data storage technology that has become the preeminent solution for backup, archiving, and secure data transfer across industries. Developed in the late 1990s through an innovative partnership between IBM, HP, and Seagate, LTO was created to provide an open alternative to proprietary tape formats, promoting competition and interoperability.

Since its inception with the LTO-1 format in 2000, LTO has continuously evolved through meticulous engineering to deliver exponential capacity growth while maintaining backward compatibility. The latest LTO-9 specification, released in 2021, astoundingly stores up to 18TB of compressed data on a single data cartridge - a staggering 180-fold increase from LTO-1's original 100GB capacity. This remarkable scalability is achieved through a range of enhancements including increased track density, deeper data encoding, and improved servo mechanisms.

At the core of LTO's technical prowess lies its intelligent cartridge memory chip and robust error correction capabilities. The onboard chip stores crucial metadata and enables precise tape positioning, while advanced error detection and correction algorithms ensure data integrity even in the highest density formats. LTO also incorporates robust security features like hardware-based encryption to safeguard sensitive data during storage and transport.

A key advantage of LTO is its exceptional value proposition combining high capacity, low total cost of ownership, and superior energy efficiency compared to traditional storage media. With compression and LTFS (Linear Tape File System) support, LTO delivers unparalleled capacity utilization. Its ultra-low power consumption translates to reduced operating costs and a smaller environmental footprint.

Beyond conventional backup and archiving use cases, the immense capacity, portability, and WORM (Write Once Read Many) LTO variants make the technology ideal for content distribution, regulatory compliance archiving, and offline storage of big data and media assets. Highly scalable LTO tape libraries equipped with sophisticated robotics can store and rapidly access over an exabyte of data.

As data growth continues its relentless trajectory, LTO's innovative roadmap through generations 10 and beyond ensures it remains the paramount tape storage solution for decades to come. Its open standards, continuous enhancement, and rich ecosystem of compatible products from multiple vendors solidify LTO as the undisputed leader in modern magnetic tape data storage technology.

Why use HPE LTO Data Tape Cartridges?

1) Air Gap Security

2) Security thru Encryption

3) Lowest Cost to Own

4) Growth and Green

HPE StoreEver LTO Data Tape Solutions for SMBs – Tape Storage

This video explores HPE StoreEver tape solutions for SMBs, delivering cost-effective, fast, removable & easy-to-use storage. It provides ultimate air-gap protection to store data offline

Comparison Table for LTO1 to LTO9

As HDD prices have dropped, disk has become cheaper relative to tape drives and cartridges. As of 2019, at any capacity, the cost of a new LTO tape drive plus one cartridge is much greater than that of a new HDD of the same or greater storage capacity. However, most new tape cartridges still have a lower price per gigabyte than HDDs, so that at very large subsystem capacities, the total price of tape-based subsystems can be lower than HDD based subsystems, particularly when the higher operating costs of HDDs are included in any calculation

Tape is also used as "offline" copy, which can be protection against ransomware that cipher, or delete data(e.g. tape is pulled out of the system in library, blocked from writing after making copy or using WORM technology). In 2019 about 80 percent of business (then modern) had data stored on tape