Tape Backup Buyers Guide

For business or public sector organisations, backup, backing-up or archiving are the common terms used when referring to data that is no longer accessed on a regular basis but must be kept long-term for commercial, compliance or regulatory reasons. Although many businesses may choose to backup live versions of their data by mirroring to off-site storage systems - either on-premise at other locations or in the public cloud, this practice is separate to the backing up of older data.

Backing-up data using HDDs and SSDs or cloud storage isn’t practical as the cost quickly spirals out of control. In addition, even the best server HDDs and SSDs only have a six year warranty. In contrast, despite its slow performance, tape remains the best format for backup as it offers much lower cost per terabyte and most tapes are rated for up to 30 years. In this guide we’ll look at the common types of tape technology available today and why you should consider them, so you are sure to make the best decisions when choosing a back-up or archiving solution.

What is a tape drive?

Tape storage works by way of two components - a tape drive that writes and reads information, and a magnetic tape that has the data written to it or read from it. Rather than an alternative to HDDs and SSDs technologies is it used to compliment them, providing a very specific function - backup and archiving. Tape technology usually sits at the edge of the core network connected to the HDD and SSD storage systems so that a duplicate copy of them can be made for long-term storage.

Tape is a much older technology and works differently to HDDs and SSDs in that it must be sequentially written and read - meaning you can only write to blank sections that follow already written sections and you can only read one section by reading the others before it - later generations use LTFS (Linear Tape File System) to improve access - more on that later.

Although magnetic tape media may seem old and clunky next to HDDs, SSDs and the cloud, it does have numerous advantages that make it ideal for back. Firstly, once data is written to the tape it is usually removed from the drive making it un-hackable. Even archive HDD and SSD systems, whether on-premise or in the cloud need to be connected to a network so they vulnerable. Secondly, tapes are much cheaper than cloud storage SSDs and in many cases HDDs, so prove very cost-effective for keeping a copy of critical data with minimal overhead cost and risk.

Backup tape formats

Although all tape solutions use magnets tape to record the data, much like in most areas of technology there was no one standard tape format, with the options including DDS (Digital Data Storage), AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) and SDLT (Super Digital Linear Tape). Over the years each of these standards had multiple generations to provide additional capacity, however only a single type remains widely in use today - LTO or Linear Tape Open, often called by the brand name Ultrium.

LTO or Ultrium technology was first invented in 2000 and has since progressed through nine generations as of 2023, with a further five in the pipeline - it is supported by major storage brands including HPE, IBM and Quantum. These generations mainly differ in the capacities of an individual tape. The original LTO-1 versions had a capacity of 100GB uncompressed or 200GB compressed, and the latest versions 18TB and 45TB respectively. Compression offers the ability to fit more data onto a tape at a ratio of either 2:1 or 2.5:1 theoretically, but the ratio will differ with the type of data being written. The below table summarises the various LTO generations.

Format	Year Released	Native Capacity	COMPRESSED CAPACITY	Max Speed (Native)	Max Speed (Compressed)
LTO-1	2000	100GB	200GB	20MB/sec	40MB/sec
LTO-2	2003	200GB	400GB	40MB/sec	80MB/sec
LTO-3	2005	400GB	800GB	80MB/sec	160MB/sec
LTO-4	2007	800GB	1.6TB	120MB/sec	240MB/sec
LTO-5	2010	1.5TB	3TB	140MB/sec	280MB/sec
LTO-6	2012	2.5TB	6.25TB	160MB/sec	400MB/sec
LTO-7	2015	6TB	15TB	300MB/sec	750MB/sec
LTO-8	2017	12TB	30TB	360MB/sec	900MB/sec
LTO-9	2021	18TB	45TB	400MB/sec	1.0GB/sec
LTO-10	2025	36TB	90TB	1.1GB/sec	2.7GB/sec
LTO-11	TBC	72TB	180TB	TBC	TBC
LTO-12	TBC	144TB	360TB	TBC	TBC
LTO-13	TBC	288TB	720TB	TBC	TBC
LTO-14	TBC	576TB	1.44PB	TBC	TBC

As with most technology, it is clear to see that with each generation the capacity increases and the speeds increase too. However, it must be pointed out that backwards compatibility is not a given. A general rule is that any generation of tape drive is compatible with the two previous tape generations, but not the ones prior to this - for example an LTO-9 drive will read and write to tapes from LT-9, LTO-8 and LTO-7 standards but not from LTO-6 or earlier. This means that if you have standardised on an LTO generation you either need to keep an older drive to read the older tapes or upgrade your whole archive. For this reason, older tapes right back to the original LTO-1 versions are still available to buy, and the drives are usually not superseded instantly by the new generation either. It is also worth mentioning that it is still possible to get tapes from the defunct DDS, AIT and SDLT standards too, as much like LTO there will be significant install bases out there.

Ready to buy?

Browse our range of tape drives:

TAPE DRIVES TAPES

Alternatively, if you have any further questions you’d like answering about tape solutions, don’t hesitate to call one of our friendly advisors on 01204 474747 or contact [email protected]