Six Reasons to Plan for the Future of Tape—Because You Can

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][mk_dropcaps style=”simple-style”]W[/mk_dropcaps]ith LTO-8 and beyond, the future of LTO looks brighter than Yoda’s lightsaber.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, like many of us, you’re excited beyond words for the upcoming release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in December. If you’re planning for the future of tape, you should probably consider LTO tape and the newest enterprise-class LTO-8.

Here are six important reasons LTO-8 is the best enterprise tape:

1. Capacity: LTO-8 has 12 TB uncompressed storage capacity per cartridge. This is 3.5 TB more than Oracle T10000D and only 3 TB less than IBM TS1155 tape.
2. Performance: LTO-8 is now equal to IBM TS1150/TS1155 with 1.5 TB/hr uncompressed writing speeds, and it outperforms Oracle by 0.15 TB/hr.
3. Error rate: In this category, LTO-8 is equal to Oracle (1 in 10¹⁹) and surpasses IBM (1 in 10¹⁸).
4. Material: LTO-8 uses BaFe metal that has proven results of 0% demagnetization over the 30-year lifespan of your data. This makes LTO-8 a great option for not only backup compliance, but for long-term archive storage.
5. Cost of ownership: LTO-8 is priced at approximately $130 per cartridge. IBM is $175 per cartridge, and Oracle comes in at $250 per cartridge. Based on capacity, cost for 5 PB capacity is:

• LTO-8: $62,550*
• IBM TS1150: $87,500
• IBM TS1155: $58,450
• Oracle T10000D: $147,250

*LTO-8 media price at launch, historically LTO media pricing declines quickly within the first 12-18 months after launch.

6. Diversification: Just as your personal financial advisor would suggest, diversity protects your assets for the future. LTO technology provides an open platform supported by multiple vendors. These vendors continue to improve LTO and have developed a road map for four future generations, through LTO-12— reaching 480 TB compressed in a single cartridge.

Read our white paper, LTO: The New Enterprise Tape Drive, to learn more about LTO and Quantum’s newest innovations with Scalar® tape libraries.

As Sean Patrick Flanery said, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”

As Yoda would say, “Future self will thank you if you do something today.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]