LTO Tapes
HPE LTO Tapes: Reliable and Cost-Effective Long-Term Archiving of Your Data
HPE LTO Ultrium tapes are the industry-leading solution for secure, reliable, and cost-effective storage of large amounts of data. As part of the established LTO Ultrium standard, these magnetic tape cartridges offer a proven method for backup and long-term archiving to protect your valuable business data from loss, damage, and cyber threats like ransomware. Discover why HPE LTO tapes are the first choice for organizations that prioritize data security, compliance, and economy.
In an era of exponential data growth, HPE LTO tapes provide a scalable and future-proof storage solution.
Why HPE LTO Tapes? The Advantages at a Glance:
- High Storage Capacity: Each LTO generation offers massive capacities (e.g., LTO-9 up to 18 TB native / 45 TB compressed per tape) for extensive archives.
- Low Cost per Terabyte: One of the most economical methods for storing large data volumes over long periods.
- Outstanding Reliability and Longevity: LTO tapes are designed for an archival life of up to 30 years and offer high data integrity.
- Effective Ransomware Protection: The offline nature ("air gap") of tapes makes offloaded data secure from online attacks.
- WORM Functionality (Write Once, Read Many): Ensures data immutability for compliance requirements and legally sound archiving.
- Strong Encryption: AES 256-bit hardware-level encryption protects sensitive data from unauthorized access.
- LTFS (Linear Tape File System): Simplifies data access by allowing tapes to be presented in the file system similarly to hard drives or USB drives.
- Scalability and Future-Proofing: The LTO roadmap ensures continuous capacity and performance increases over future generations.
Understanding LTO Technology – What's Behind It?
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is an open magnetic tape standard developed by HPE, IBM, and Quantum. It is characterized by a clear roadmap with regularly released new generations, each offering higher capacities, faster transfer rates, and improved features.
LTO Generations at a Glance
From LTO-1 to the current LTO-9 generation (and future planned generations like LTO-10, LTO-11, LTO-12), the native storage capacity has multiplied from 100 GB to 18 TB per cartridge. Each new drive generation can typically read and write tapes of the current and previous generation, ensuring investment protection and backward compatibility.
Core Features for Data Security and Management
In addition to pure storage capacity, LTO technology offers crucial features: WORM for immutable archives, hardware-based AES 256-bit encryption to protect sensitive data, and the Linear Tape File System (LTFS), which has revolutionized tape data handling by providing a file-based interface and enabling tape partitioning.
Technical Highlights of HPE LTO Tapes:
HPE, as one of the leading providers of LTO technology, ensures the highest quality standards:
Maximum Capacity and Performance
HPE LTO Ultrium tapes use the most advanced magnetic particles and coating processes to reliably achieve the high storage densities and transfer rates of the respective LTO generation. LTO-9 drives, for example, achieve native transfer rates of up to 400 MB/s.
Reliability and Archival Lifespan
Through rigorous testing procedures, HPE ensures that its LTO tapes meet the highest demands for data integrity and longevity. With proper storage, they offer archival security for up to 30 years.
Comprehensive Security through "Air Gap," WORM, and Encryption
The ability to physically disconnect tapes from the system (air gap) makes them immune to online cyberattacks. HPE LTO WORM media prevent data from being overwritten or deleted. Strong encryption protects data even if tapes are lost or stolen.
Cost-Effectiveness and Scalability
The low cost per terabyte and lower energy consumption compared to disk systems make LTO tapes the ideal solution for growing data archives. The clear generational roadmap allows for predictable scaling.
Application Examples – Where HPE LTO Tapes are Indispensable:
- Long-Term Archiving: For industries with strict retention requirements (finance, healthcare, public administration) and for securing historical company data.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery: As a reliable medium for creating offline backup copies to protect against data loss due to hardware failure, natural disasters, or cyberattacks.
- Ransomware Protection: Offloaded LTO tapes form a last line of defense, as they cannot be reached and encrypted by ransomware.
- Storage of Large Data Volumes: For media archives (video, audio), scientific research data, surveillance recordings, and big data applications.
- Data Migration and Transport: Secure and cost-effective transfer of large data volumes between locations.
What to Look for When Buying HPE LTO Tapes?
- LTO Generation: Ensure the tape generation is compatible with your LTO drives. LTO drives can typically read and write tapes of their own generation and the direct predecessor generation.
- Capacity Needs: Estimate your current and future data volume to choose the right number and generation of tapes.
- WORM Requirement: If data must be archived immutably (e.g., for compliance reasons), choose HPE LTO WORM cartridges.
- Quantity and Packaging Units: HPE offers single tapes as well as multipacks, which often provide a price advantage.
- Labeling: For use in tape libraries, pre-labeled tapes (with barcode labels) are recommended to simplify organization and handling. HPE offers services for this.
- Cleaning Cartridges: Also consider the necessary cleaning cartridges for your LTO drives to maintain their lifespan and reliability.
At etree, you will find a selection of HPE LTO tapes of various generations, as well as suitable accessories.