When will the Ultrium LTO-7 Tape Drives & Media begin shipping?

- Posted by Author: norm in Category: Uncategorized |

When will the Ultrium LTO-7 Tape Drives & Media be released?  We have heard as early as 4th quarter 2015, but most likely it will be sometime in 2016.  Remember, WeBuyUsedITequipment.net has been securely eradicating data and recycling storage media for over 40 years – Your data is safe – we are currently buying all types of LTO media:  Any brand of LTO-6, LTO-5, and LTO-4, as well as legacy tapes:  HP LTO-3, and HP LTO-2.  Check out this article on LTO:

http://searchdatabackup.techtarget.com/definition/LTO-6-Linear-Tape-Open-6

hp lto3 (2)

IBM has announced another massive step forward in tape technology. Working with Fujifilm, IBM has developed a prototype that packs 220TB of data onto a standard LTO-size tape.

The as-yet-unnamed technology offers 88 times the capacity of LTO6, which is capable of holding a mere 2.5TB of uncompressed data. Unfortunately it may be many years before the new technology finally makes it to market; IBM claims that many of the storage technologies reaching market now were first developed in 2007.

This latest technology breakthrough is a significant step forward with tape heads having to be accurate to as little as 6 nanometers in order to fit more data onto the tape. Even the barium ferrite particles that make up the magnetic layer on the tape surface have been reduced in size to help add more tracks.

Unfortunately the final maximum capacity of this latest tape drive generation may also be less than the headline 220TB. Backwards compatibility considerations will almost certainly rule out a move to 6 nanometer technology for some time to come, as the preceding generation of drives will be unable to make use of tape tracks that small.

But rather than simply helping to expand the potential backup capacity for enterprise-class organisations, IBM believe this latest technology will also have a part to play in the Cloud too. The incredibly low $ per GB price means that tape could be the perfect medium for large-scale Cloud data archives where speed of retrieval is of secondary importance to capacity.

The fact that IBM continues to devote significant resources to developing new technologies, coupled with the ongoing increases in tape drive sales, goes to prove that magnetic tape still has a future. And this fact should provide food for thought for any organisation considering retiring their existing tape drive arrays in favour of a Cloud service that may itself be reliant on magnetic tape storage. – See more at: https://www.cds.net/news/2015/05/has-ibm-leaked-details-of-lto7/#sthash.taGb7KDo.dpuf