LTO-9 - specification of LTO-9 Ultrium drives and media

LTO-9 is the latest format specification for LTO Ultrium tape drives and media. It provides significantly higher capacity and higher performance than the previous generation, LTO-8.

Higher capacity, lower cost and faster performance

For the 9th generation LTO, the LTO program has balanced the costs and benefits of the new technology by offering an 18TB tape cartridge to meet the current market demand for storage space. This represents a 50% increase in capacity over LTO-8 and a 1400% increase over LTO-5 technology introduced a decade ago, with transfer speeds of 400 MB/s (native), 1000 MB/s (2.5:1).

Higher capacity, lower cost and faster performance 

Generation 9 LTO specifications include multi-layer security support with hardware encryption, immutable WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality and fast data access with Linear Tape File System (LTFS). In addition, full read-write backward compatibility with LTO Generation 8. LTO-9 cartridges maintain the powerful, scalable and adaptable open tape storage format, giving users the confidence to invest in tape as their primary archiving and data protection solution, with the benefit of offline storage to protect against the immediate and growing threat of cyber attacks.

Future-proof your archives with LTO-9 technology

According to INSIC2's tape technology roadmap, the potential for tape technology to meet robust capacity projections over the next decade shows a clear advantage over HDD technologies. Current LTO and enterprise tape drives operate at an areal density about two orders of magnitude lower than the latest HDDs. This means that it is possible to continue to increase the capacity of tape technology at historic rates until about 2030.

Compare, for example, an 18TB disk product using 1022 Gb/in 2 with the latest 18TB LTO-9 cartridge using just 12 Gb/in 2. This means that LTO-9 tape can provide the same capacity at just 1/85th the areal density of a similar capacity disk. According to INSIC, tape simply has the potential to grow further and faster than disk, providing 40% annual capacity growth for the foreseeable future.

Analysts' point of view

“Given its long history of use and solid path for future innovation, tape still has a significant role to play in the modern data center and hybrid topologies,” - says Christophe Bertrand, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “The role of tape is changing, which further increases its value. In addition to archiving massive data sets for active archiving or longer-term storage at low cost, tape has the ability to create an isolated and 'airtight' layer.” This emerging use case is ideal for storing data beyond the reach of cyberattacks.”