Is The Time Right to Move to LTO-6?

 

Posted on: 19/09/13

Most customers who have invested in tape backup are using one generation or another of LTO drives. Particularly those who were using LTO-3/4 in a library didn’t require the extra capacity of LTO-5 or features such as encryption are still using this technology and are wondering if the time is right to look at the new generation of LTO-6 Ultrium tape drives (or a least that’s what I was asked recently).

The tapes now come in capacities ranging up to 6.25TB of compressed data or 2.5TB uncompressed. As all generations of LTO tape you can read/write to the previous tape model, in this case LTO-5 tapes, and will read tapes two generations back (LTO-4 tapes). The Ultrium 6250 also now interfaces via 6GB/s SAS as well as Fibre Channel, this largely depends on whether you opt for a standalone drive or library. As with LTO-5 it also supports encryption at the drive level meaning encryption is fast and doesn’t add overhead to the backup server. I’ve also seen more and more that data encryption is becoming a mandatory requirement for organisations to ensure the secure handling of customer’s sensitive data.

They’ve also improved how the hardware compression works, so in terms of additional capacity LTO-6 tapes feature improvements over LTO-5 that are notable and shouldn't be overlooked. LTO-5 drives compressed at a ratio of 2:1, whereas LTO-6 is capable of a 2.5:1. That enables a capacity rise up to 2.5TB compared to 1.5TB on LTO-5. LTO-6 features improved data transfer speeds stretching up to 160MB/s from 140MB/s on LTO-5 so not only will you get more data on a tape it will also be written more quickly.

 

So back to the original question - is the time right to move to LTO-6? As always this largely depends on requirements. Do you need the additional capacity and performance or features such as data encryption?

 

One thing that’s always important to factor in is the cost of tapes that you are presently using; if you are currently using LT0-3 or older you will definitely need to replace all of your current tape cartridges. This for some is a bigger cost than purchasing the new drives.

Another option worth considering is by introducing SAN attached data de-dupe technologies in conjunction with tape backup/archive rather than refreshing the tape backup. This gives greater scope and flexibility with the technology being used and could reduce your costs in the long term; however this is a topic of discussion for another day.

 

If you wish to discuss other options or require further information please contact Celerity Limited.
 

Neil Hulme, Technical Consultant, Celerity Limited