Dell Delves into Next Generation Tape

April 20, 2007: Dell is claiming the title of first major storage provider to deliver LTO-4 tape technology, promising greater security and easier management of critical data.

The company claims that its new PowerVault LTO-4-120 enables greater security through device-level encryption, bigger capacities and better performance than has been possible to date with tape storage technology.

Based on the LTO-4 Ultrium format, Dell says its drives offer native capacities of 800GB and 50 percent increases in performance over the previous generation. It claims that this enables a 33 percent decrease in backup and restoration times.

Along with performance and capacity increases, Dell also says that thanks to the standardised LTO technology both forward and backwards compatibility is assured. The LTO-4 is read and write compatible with the last generation and it is read compatible with the two generation prior to that.

Dell expects the drives and media to be available from April 20, this year, with pricing for the external standalone PowerVault LTO-4-120 starting at US$4,000 (AU$4,800) and media starting at US$200 (AU$240).

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