LTO Drive Sales Pass 1.5 Million Mark

September 27th, 2006: HP, IBM and Quantum have jointly announced that the LTO Ultrium format has achieved sales of more than 1.5 million drives since it became commercially available in September 2000.

In a second milestone, the three also announced that LTO Ultrium tape cartridge shipments have hit over 50 million, demonstrating, its three champions say, the strong adoption of the format by business and government.

These milestones follow recently announced plans to feature encryption capabilities in LTO generation 4.

“There's no denying that LTO Ultrium products have established considerable momentum and acceptance in the marketplace,” says Dianne McAdam, the director of enterprise information assurance for the Clipper Group. “This is a testament to the importance of tape storage and its ability to address user's needs for dependable data retention, data protection and low cost of ownership, as compared to disk.”

HP’s Nealine Storage Division’s vice president Bob Wilson also spoke up on the LTO milestones saying that they “demonstrate that the combination of performance, reliability and versatility delivered by LTO Ultrium.”

Who says tape is dead.

Comment on this story