Hewlett-Packard launches LTO-5 tape

LTO-5 tape pricing and specifications

LTO-5 tape cartridges have twice the capacity of LTO-4 tape, at 1.5 TB native and 3 TB compressed. Performance has increased from 120 MBps to 140 MBps native, and 240 MBps to 280 MBps compressed. LTO-5 carries over LTO-4's hardware encryption and adds a partitioning functionality that lets applications index data on tape to make it easier to access.

Download this free guide

ATTN: Which backup software is right for your business?

“Do I still need an enterprise-level backup software app? How can I prepare for the top challenges I may encounter when buying restore software? Which products should be on my radar?” You’ll find the answers to these queries and more, in this free, downloadable PDF.

Start Download

• Corporate E-mail Address:

  You forgot to provide an Email Address.

  This email address doesn’t appear to be valid.

  This email address is already registered. Please login.

  You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

  Please provide a Corporate E-mail Address.

• • I agree to TechTarget’s Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and the transfer of my information to the United States for processing to provide me with relevant information as described in our Privacy Policy.

  Please check the box if you want to proceed.

• • I agree to my information being processed by TechTarget and its Partners to contact me via phone, email, or other means regarding information relevant to my professional interests. I may unsubscribe at any time.

  Please check the box if you want to proceed.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

HP will make LTO-5 hardware products generally available this month for its MSL midrange series of tape libraries, including new cartridges, new drives and upgrade kits for existing MSL, and new standalone MSL LTO-5 libraries.

The LTO-5 tape cartridges are priced at $168.50 for a rewriteable cartridge and $185 for a WORM version. New drives are list priced at $3,559, while a kit to upgrade an existing MSL to LTO-5 is list priced at $12,000. An entirely new MSL 2024 LTO-5 tape library starts at $9,000. HP's EML and ESL enterprise tape silos and low-end autoloaders will add LTO-5 support around midyear.

More on LTO-5 tape LTO tape technology continues to evolve with LTO-5 Data backup and recovery tutorial: tape storage Data backup and recovery briefs: Imation to ship LTO-5 tape cartridges Here comes LTO-5 tape technology, ready or not

HP's tape libraries have previously monitored tape performance reactively, according to HP StorageWorks product marketing manager for tape media Andrew Dodd. "This will show if, say, the error rate on a tape drive or media is increasing, and warn the customer to replace it before there are issues with their backups," he said.

HP is not the first to announce support for LTO-5. Quantum and Overland rolled out LTO-5 tape products earlier this month, and the format has been on the LTO Consortium's roadmap and discussed for years. The new standard hits the market at a time when disk has eclipsed tape as the main medium for day-to-day data backup and recovery.

However, tape vendors and industry analysts say tape storage is far from dead, especially when it comes to long-term offline data retention. IDC analyst Steve Scully predicted the boost in capacity and speed of LTO-5 will be bolster tape's value for long-term data archiving. "As tape's role changes from daily backup to long-term retention and archiving, people that really commit to using tape in that capacity will look for something that operates faster and stores more data," he said.

Wikibon analyst David Vellante said the LTO roadmap looks like it will keep pace with disk into the future. "I think they'll get [LTO] to over 30 TB," he said. "By having this roadmap, it means you can back up big, honking SATA disks however big they get in the near term."