Quantum has announced a partnership with IBM on the next generation of LTO technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Quantum will collaborate with IBM in its development of LTO-10 tape drives and media in order to accelerate time-to-market, capacity, and performance. The specific terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed.
“With the massive growth in data, as well as pervasive ransomware threats, low-cost ultra-secure LTO is more relevant than ever,” says Jamie Lerner, President and CEO, Quantum. “It is a strategic technology for large scale data storage, and it is imperative that LTO technology continues to evolve to meet growing marketplace needs. This partnership underscores our commitment to LTO and our desire to collaborate with IBM in their development of LTO-10.”
About LTO Technology
Linear Tape Open (LTO), also known as the LTO Ultrium format, is an open tape format designed for high-capacity long term storage and is used by many of the world’s largest hyperscalers and enterprises for archiving data and protecting data against ransomware. Since the first LTO products were brought to market, over 5.6 million drives [1], 351 million cartridges and over 370 billion Terabytes of media capacity have been shipped, making LTO Ultrium the most successful tape format in history.
The latest generation of LTO, LTO-8, began shipping in 2017 with tape capacity of 12 Terabytes per drive. The upcoming LTO-9 has a targeted capacity point of 18 Terabytes per drive. Work is now beginning on LTO-10, and this agreement will focus on accelerating the development of LTO-10, as well as improving the capacity and performance of this next generation.
The Importance of LTO Tape for Cold Data Storage and Ransomware Protection
LTO tape is increasingly being used for large scale cold storage due to its low cost, extremely low power and cooling requirements, reliability for storing data for decades, and storage density. Quantum is a leader in providing tape technology to hyperscale environments.
“We are excited about this partnership with IBM,” says Bruno Hald, General Manager of Secondary Storage at Quantum. “Customers and the tape market in general will benefit with faster time-to-market of the next LTO generation, and its anticipated improvements in LTO storage densities. We believe this news will be very well received in the market for all of those customers that rely on LTO as a key part of their storage infrastructure.”
