LTO Tape Capacity Shipments Set Another New Record

• 148.3 Exabytes of total capacity shipped in 2022
• Demand driven by hyperscaler and enterprise adoption of LTO tape for low cost, secure, green data storage

SILICON VALLEY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, International Business Machines Corporation and Quantum Corporation, today released their annual tape media shipment report, detailing year-over-year shipments through the fourth quarter of 2022. The report reveals 148.3 Exabytes* (EB) of total tape capacity (compressed) shipped in 2022, an increase of 0.5% over 2021, and a strong result driven by continued hyperscaler and enterprise investment in LTO tape technology.

“LTO tape capacity shipments reached another record in 2022, outperforming alternative storage technologies that experienced declines,” said Bruno Hald, General Manager, Secondary Storage, Quantum. “Both hyperscale and enterprise customers continue to value LTO tape as low cost, secure, and green data storage for data protection and archiving. Our ongoing efforts to improve and innovate the capabilities of LTO tape reflect our commitment to meeting the changing needs of our customers and staying at the forefront of the industry. We believe that these efforts, combined with the inherent advantages of LTO tape, will ensure its continued relevance and success in the years to come.”

As global business and technical leaders track emerging trends in data storage and management, LTO tape technology provides an effective solution to the challenges posed by the exponential growth of unstructured data, while simultaneously delivering cost savings and environmental sustainability benefits. Further, LTO tape offers an ultra-secure place to keep an air-gapped copy of data to protect against ransomware and malware.

“LTO tape offers a low cost, secure solution for ransomware protection,” said Christophe Bertrand, Practice Director, Enterprise Strategy Group. “We’re seeing that LTO technology continues to represent a high value for traditional customers in need of airgap and long-term data storage, which is one of the factors driving a resurgence in enterprise demand.”

The latest LTO generation is LTO-9, which is designed to support increased tape cartridge storage capacity of up to 45TB when compressed. LTO-9 drives offer comprehensive backward read and write compatibility with LTO-8 cartridges, along with various previously established functionalities, such as hardware-based encryption that supports multi-layer security, WORM capability, and Linear Tape File System (LTFS) support. In September of 2022, the LTO program announced an extended LTO tape roadmap that calls for plans to achieve up to 1.4 Petabytes of compressed capacity per cartridge by generation 14 of the technology.

The LTO Program will continue to produce annual shipment reports for tape media, which are available for download from the LTO Program website, www.lto.org.

About Linear Tape-Open (LTO)

The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and continuously enhanced by technology providers Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation (and their predecessors) to help address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. This ultra-high capacity generation of tape storage products is designed to deliver outstanding performance, capacity and reliability combining the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi-directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout, and error correction.

The LTO Ultrium format has a well-defined roadmap for growth and scalability. The roadmap represents intentions and goals only and is subject to change or withdrawal. There is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. The roadmap is intended to outline a general direction of technology and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision. Format compliance verification is vital to meet the free-interchange objectives that are at the core of the LTO Program. Ultrium tape mechanism and tape cartridge interchange specifications are available on a licensed basis. For additional information on the LTO Program, visit www.lto.org.

*Assumes a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives.

Note: Linear Tape-Open, LTO, the LTO logo, Ultrium, and the Ultrium logo are registered trademarks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, International Business Machines Corporation and Quantum Corporation in the US and other countries.

Contacts

Anthony Nerantzis

FleishmanHillard

anthony.nerantzis@fleishman.com