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LTO Program Announces Price Per Gigabyte Now Less Than One Penny
The LTO Program announced today that LTO Generation 6 tape has reached another cost-per-gigabyte milestone of below a cent. Today, LTO storage can be as low as 0.8 cents per gigabyte and $8 per terabyte based on the current market price of tape media. As the price per gigabyte for tape storage continues to drop, LTO plays an increasingly vital role in the datacenter for a range of unique datasets and stages in the data lifecycle, LTO allows organizations to keep more data for longer periods of time by storing the right data at the right time on the most cost-effective storage tier. When factors such as equipment, media, maintenance, energy costs and floor space are taken into account, LTO tape storage technology continues to be the most cost-effective and energy-efficient solution for data storage managers worldwide. The Clipper Group found that the average disk-based solution costs 26 times the total cost of ownership for an average tape-based solution. The cost of energy alone for the average disk-based solution exceeds the entire total cost of ownership for the average tape-based solution. Tape, with a more than 60-year history of success in the data center, has evolved to a point where it can be the solution of choice for the preservation of data in every data center. Tape is an obvious solution, so why not use it? The current generation of LTO technology – LTO generation 6 – supports tape cartridge storage compressed capacity of up to 6.25TB, more than twice the compressed capacity over the previous generation, and tape drive data transfer rates of up to 400MB per second for over 1.4 terabytes of storage performance an hour per drive. As with previous generations, LTO-6 drives provide backward compatibility with the ability to read and write LTO generation 5 cartridges and read LTO generation 4 cartridges, helping to preserve media investments and ease implementation. Last fall, the LTO Program announced the extension of the LTO product roadmap through generation 10. The extended roadmap now includes generations 9 and 10. The new generation guidelines call for compressed capacities of 62.5 TB for generation 9 and 120 TB for generation 10. | | FAQs
Yes, magnetic tape backups are still used at many organizations— usually not for primary storage, but as archival storage and as part of a backup strategy.
Is magnetic tape data storage still used? ›
Companies still use tape in state-of-the-art data centers, but engineers developed the underlying tech before the advent of computers. Who said an old dog can't learn new tricks? Despite the age of tape storage technology, innovation continues.
Does Google still use tape? ›
Tape backups exists in giant libraries (awesomely referred to as silos) and, according to IT Business Edge's Paul Mah, Google uses 50,000 linear tape-open cartridges every quarter.
Are LTO tapes still used? ›
LTO technology has become the de facto tape format standard worldwide, and tape systems can integrate with multiple systems onsite or offsite, including many on-premise/private cloud solutions.
What is the main disadvantage of tape storage as a backup? ›
One of the biggest drawbacks of using tapes as your backup is their speed. Data is written sequentially, so it can take lots of time to back up large amounts of data. Restoring files also takes a lot of time. Time-consuming Search.
What is better than tape backup? ›
Generally speaking, disk systems back up much faster than tape, in part because they can do data de-duplication, which means they won't copy data already stored on the backup appliance. Disk backups are also much easier to access.
Why is tape still the best way to backup data? ›
The biggest value of magnetic tape is that it can store huge amounts of data in a relatively compact format. Some tapes are capable of holding several terabytes of data. This makes them the most cost-effective method of data storage for large volumes of data by far.
How long will magnetic tape last? ›
Magnetic tapes stored under archival conditions (National Archives and Records Administration example) generally have a lifespan of about 10 to 50 years before exhibiting difficult to handle decay. Somewhere in the middle is most common.
How much data can you store on a tape drive? ›
The typical storage capacity of a magnetic tape is 100 terabytes (TB). The benefits of storing data on magnetic tape include its cost-effectiveness and large storage capacity. However, magnetic tapes with up to 580 TB storage capacity are available for those who need a lot of data space for their backups.
What is the largest tape drive? ›
The new tape produced by these industry giants has a capacity of 580TB (terabytes), approximately 50 times greater than the capacity of current data cartridges. It holds a world record 317 Gbpsi (gigabytes per sq inch — 6.45 sq cm).
Tape storage used by the military is said to be safe from data deterioration for at least 50 years. This makes tape drives a good repository for backup data that needs to be retained for years as per compliance regulations or internal business policies.
What is the lifespan of a tape storage system? ›
Most manufacturers estimate that LTO tapes will provide dependable data storage for 15-30 years. However, LTO archives require precise storage conditions. Slight deviations in temperature or humidity can affect storage life. Ideally, LTOs should be stored at 61 to 77°F (16 to 25°C).
Why do people still use tape drives? ›
Greater security against certain threats
Aside from cost-effectiveness, the biggest reason to store data on tape backups is that they're simply more secure than hard disks and cloud storage. Cybercrime continues to rise, with malware and ransomware attacks becoming ever more prevalent.
What is the difference between tape drive and tape library? ›
Tape drives can be connected to a computer with SCSI, Fibre Channel, SATA, USB, FireWire, FICON, or other interfaces. Tape drives are used with autoloaders and tape libraries which automatically load, unload, and store multiple tapes, increasing the volume of data which can be stored without manual intervention.
How reliable are tape backups? ›
Tape Is More Reliable Than Hard Drives
Over the years, tape backup technology has advanced significantly and is still more dependable than hard disks. Hard drives are susceptible to mechanical failure, magnetic fields, or collisions.
What is the alternative to a tape drive backup? ›
Cloud backup represents a significant shift from traditional tape drive backup alternatives. Offering scalability and remote data storage, cloud backup solutions appeal to businesses seeking flexibility and off-site data protection. However, this alternative is not without its complexities.
