Stutch Data has taken delivery of the first pallet of FUJIFILM LTO-9 tapes in Australia. LTO-9 is the latest generation of LTO tape technology released with a native capacity of 18TB and up to 45TB compressed. According to Stutch Data GM, Richard Stutchbury, the future has never looked brighter for LTO tapes.

These tapes have 1.5 times the capacity and faster write and read speeds than its predecessor LTO-8 tapes.

Stutch Data’s clients use LTO tapes to store cold, archive or little used data to save costs of keeping it on more expensive and less reliable mediums like spinning hard disk drives and flash storage.

Stutchbury added, “Other uses include cloud providers backup and archive, government and corporate backup, archive and tiered storage, security footage from permanently mounted cameras and body worn cameras as many police departments are returning to tape due to this large amount of 4k footage. LTO tapes are also used for recording film and TV footage, film special effects and editing and many medical applications.

“In fact, there are so many uses it is hard to keep up with the ways they are being used. Then there’s the fact that the LTFS option allows users to drag and drop files straight onto tape which is another great benefit.”

Talking of benefits, Stutchbury sees many when using LTO tape over other media such as SSD.

He continued, “Customer peace of mind is a big part of it, a little like insurance. IT budgets are constantly being squeezed to get the most efficient use of each dollar. There are security and regulatory record keeping requirements, data can be invaluable for future marketing and customer service system improvements and lastly tape is more environmentally friendly than hard disk, flash or cloud due to its low carbon footprint as it uses no power once it is written.

“It is a unique data storage medium providing an air-gapped isolation system which created it and therefore it can be the last line of protection against cyber-attacks like viruses and ransomware but also human error or a disgruntled staff member. LTO tapes are portable and can be taken offsite and stored in a secure location until required in the future.”

Stutchbury also notes that LTO tapes are the lowest cost per TB of any data storage medium (up to 80% cheaper than disk over the lifetime of the data) yet are also the most reliable and secure storage medium available.

He adds, “They have a high capacity, are scalable, secure due to the air-gap and they can be encrypted. They have longevity from accelerated testing simulations and cannot crash or be hacked. Many of these factors have created another use called nearline storage where files are available online through a tape library at slower speeds than spinning hard disk drives and flash storage but more reliable and at a much cheaper cost. Nearline storage helps reduce cloud restore costs.”

When asked to predict the future for LTO tape in Australia and globally Stutchbury said, “In the short term we should see some users move away from tape but more come back to, or start using tape for the first time. There will be steady growth in the use of LTO tape by cloud providers, government and corporations for archive, backup and nearline storage. In the medium and long term, we should see continued increase in use by the above users and applications but there will be a move back to tape in house for many small, medium and some larger data storage organisations.

“In short LTO tape will be there for the foreseeable future for lower speed and high-capacity data storage and air-gap requirements, as there simply isn’t another better, more viable and more cost-efficient alternative.”