A tape is a straightforward medium with simple parts, making it ideal for long-term storage. By contrast, drives are complex devices with numerous moving parts that must be connected to an energy source at all times. Unlike disk, tape is only in use when transferring data. Hard drives become less reliable when not used regularly and are not designed to sit on a shelf.
Disks, unlike tapes, are at risk of falling victim to computer vulnerabilities like hacking, viruses, malware or being erased. Tape represents a stable safeguard against these weaknesses. LTO is recognized as having the lowest cost per gigabyte among storage media. Tape uses less energy and offers cheaper storage capacity, resulting in cost saving efficiencies. The result is that tape is the least expensive enterprise storage option, even when the cost of off-site storage is included.
When used with the Linear Tape File System LTFS —a direct access system that allows files stored on magnetic tape to be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk—LTO can offer access capability comparable to disk. LTFS lets users search a tape as readily as a hard disk, improving access time. An onsite disk system demands lots of space and energy. Sending seldom-used data to long-term offsite tape storage can be a less costly alternative to expensive real estate.
In addition, it delivers a disaster recovery option for high-value content. These are two major advantages of off-site LTO storage. Despite the many advantages of LTO storage, the medium also comes with some disadvantages. As new LTO iterations are introduced, regular updating is essential to leverage enhanced storage capacity and new features. While enhancements are beneficial, these continual upgrades are contributing to confusion and the risk of obsolescence.
Tape archives need to be kept scrupulously clean to avoid dirt and dust that can hamper performance. Ideally this involves professional, archival storage facilities that meet all the necessary environmental criteria. The maximum transfer speed is reached as soon as the tape is positioned on the respective data block. The read-write head writes multiple data tracks simultaneously in a single, one-way, end-to-end pass. Early generations of tape suffered from so-called shoe shining, the stop-and-go of the drive upon the flow of data changes.
Recent LTO generations have an auto speed mechanism built-in that lowers the streaming speed if the data flow slows so that the drive can still write at a constant speed.
To ensure that the data just written on the tape is identical to what it should be, a verify-after-write process is used, using a read head that the tape passes after a write head. The advantage is that everyone with an LTO drive can have access to the files on a tape. This is especially helpful when using LTO tape for data exchange or data transport. It took some time for the format to evolve in a way that it can be recommended as long-term archive format as well.
LTO tape has an extremely low bit-error-rate that is lower than that of hard disks. This means that the drive and media will have one single bit error in approximately 10 exabytes EB of data being stored this means more than , LTO-8 tapes!
This is due to several data-integrity checking features that include error-correcting code ECC for headers that are a part of the recording format on tape. In addition to the built-in security features comes the air gap between tapes and the network. Having this physical gap between storage and any malware and attacks provides a grade of security that is unmatched.
Also unmatched is the shelf life of LTO tape, with up to 30 years. Especially for archiving, this is the foundation for long-term data preservation. Choosing the right LTO tape generation depends on your requirements , setup, and budget. Both P5 Backup and P5 Archive work with tape and can clone tapes to create two identical tape sets. One can be stored offsite for maximum security. Skip to content By Marc M.
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