How to Securely Wipe Data from LTO Tapes?

Despite the newer technologies and storage mediums, magnetic storage tapes, including LTO tapes, remain one of the most popular storage mediums across different industries.

Magnetic tapes are currently the most cost-effective storage medium, with the lowest price per TB. This is why, although LTO tapes offer slower, sequential-style read/write functionality than HDDs or SSDs, they remain a popular medium for enterprises, especially for long-term data archiving. 

Another key advantage of LTO tapes over other mediums is their longevity, with the lifecycle typically quoted at 30 years. However, despite this long lifecycle, at some point, you’ll need to retire these tape cartridges and probably replace them with newer ones.

So, what can you do about the data stored on these LTO tapes once you’ve decided to retire them? Is it safe just to perform a regular wipe?

In this guide, we will discuss all you need to know about performing secure data erasure and physical destruction of your LTO tape cartridges, and by the end of this guide, you’ll learn about:

  • Your options with retired LTO tapes
  • The legality of LTO tape disposal
  • Secure data erasure and physical destruction methods of LTO tape cartridges
  • Tips to securely dispose of or sell your unused LTO tape cartridges

And more.

Without further ado, let’s start by discussing your options with your unused/retired LTO tapes.

Selling vs. repurposing vs. recycling your LTO tapes

You have an unused LTO tape cartridge—or cartridges in a tape library—lying around collecting dust. What are your options with them?

First things first, we have to assess the condition of the LTO tapes. Each LTO tape is unique, and we’ll need to consider several key factors:

  • The age and condition of the tape cartridge, whether the tape can still function properly at an optimal speed
  • What's the resale value of the LTO tape? Obviously, the newer and the better the condition, the more expensive it will be
  • If you are planning to get a replacement cartridge and/or tape drive (upgrade), what's the price of the replacement cartridges? Is the gap between the new and old tape’s resale value too big?
  • Whether the LTO tape cartridge contains sensitive, confidential, or regulated data

By considering these factors, we basically can choose between three options: 

  1. Recycling/disposal: in this approach, your LTO tape cartridge is physically destroyed and disposed of and/or recycled. Disposal is the approach to take if the resale value of the storage tape is already too low or if the tape contains sensitive/regulated data and you simply don’t want to take the risk.
  2. Repurposing: this is the option to take if your tape cartridge is still in pretty good condition, but the resale value is too low. You can use the old IBM hard drive on other devices or repurpose it as an external drive.
  3. Selling: If the resale value of the LTO tape cartridge is still reasonably good and you are confident about secure data wiping (or if you sell to a reputable IT asset disposition company), then this should be the main option to consider to maximize your tape’s ROI. If you plan to replace the tape cartridge, then selling your used data tape media can also help finance the upgrade.

Is it legal to physically dispose of LTO tape cartridges?

When discussing the legality of disposing of LTO tapes—or any digital storage media for that matter—we have to consider two different regulations: environmental and data security laws.

Environmental regulations

Under the current laws as regulated by the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulation 40CFR2v3 and RIOS61, it is perfectly legal to dispose of LTO tape cartridges without any special means. 

Under this regulation, LTO tape cartridges are considered as non-hazardous waste, so technically, you can simply throw the tape in the trash bin, and you’re basically done. 

However, your local and state regulations may be more restrictive than this EPA 40CFR2v3 and RIOS61 regulation, so we’d recommend reviewing them before you dispose of the LTO tape. This also applies if you are a non-U.S. business and/or operating in different regions. Make sure to review your country or regional regulations, and make sure to check with the tape’s datasheet (i.e., on the vendor’s official website) for information about the materials contained in the cartridge.

Yet, while you are legally allowed to dispose of LTO tape cartridges according to environmental regulations, it may not be the case according to the applicable data protection laws.

Data protection regulations

In today’s digital and social media age, various data protection rules, laws, and regulations are implemented in various countries and/or regions to control the collection, use, transfer, and—related to this case of tape disposal—storage of sensitive and personal information. 

The pioneer of such laws was the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation,) which applies to countries and organizations within the EU (European Union.) However, now many countries outside the EU have also created and implemented their own data protection laws.

The US doesn’t have a singular law that covers data privacy, but there is a mix of industry-specific laws and state-level laws. Meaning, organizations in the US are pretty much free to dispose of their LTO tapes and do what they want with customers’ sensitive data, unless the industry or state they belong to has its own data privacy law.

At the moment, only three states in the US have their consumer data privacy laws: 

  • California with CCPA (California Customer Privacy Act) and its amendment, CPRA (California Privacy Rights Act)
  • Virginia with VCDPA (Virginia Customer Data Protection Act)
  • Colorado with ColoPA or CPA (Colorado Privacy Act)

Different regulations designed for different industries and/or specific types of data are also in effect in the U.S., including:

  • HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). If you are in the healthcare industry, any data that covers communication between patients and covered entities (hospitals, pharmacies, insurers, doctors, etc.) is protected by HIPAA.
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) covers student education records.
  • The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) covers consumers’ information in their credit reports.
  • Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) limits a company’s ability to perform data collection on children under 13 years old.

If you are in a country or state with specific data protection laws or in an industry that requires you to protect sensitive consumers’ data, most likely, you’ll be required to perform secure data eradication or perform secure physical destruction that complies with these regulations before you can dispose of your LTO tape cartridges or even before selling your LTO tapes to other parties.

Secure data erasure of LTO Tapes

As discussed, if you are in a regulated state, country, or industry, you will be legally required to securely erase sensitive data from your LTO tape cartridges before you can dispose of, recycle, or sell them, whether via secure data erasure (while keeping the tape cartridge intact) or complete physical destruction. The idea is to ensure sensitive data can’t be recovered and used by malicious parties. 

However, even when secure data erasure isn’t legally required in your location and/or industry, leaving your data intact as you dispose of/sell your storage tape may expose your business and your customers to enormous risks. The sensitive data stored in your data tapes can provide cybercriminals and malicious actors with a valuable vector for them to attack your business and cause potentially lasting damage. 

With that being said, we’d recommend always performing secure wiping to your LTO tapes before parting ways with them in any way.

So, how can we securely erase data stored in the LTO tapes and prevent it from being recovered? 

There are various data erasure methods you can use, but here are some of the most popular ones: 

  • Overwriting with random data: a viable and secure practice is to pump random data to the LTO tape cartridge. This random data may throw off malicious parties, and recovering the original data can be difficult/time-consuming. However, this rewriting process can take a very long time, considering the size of the tape and its sequential read/write nature.
  • Formatting: most stand-alone tapes and tape-library devices offer the option to format your LTO tape cartridge (i.e., volume label, tape density methods.) Formatting is much more efficient than overwriting the tape, but at the same time isn’t as secure. The data previously stored on the formatted device may be recoverable by sophisticated attackers.
  • Degaussing: degaussing is the method of passing the LTO tape cartridge through a powerful but controlled magnetic field (via a degausser tool.) The magnetic field will rearrange the polarity of particles within the tape, completely removing the resemblance to the previously recorded data. An important note when degaussing LTO tapes is that the process will render the tape unusable since it will also scramble important control components stored on the tape (servo track, control track, etc.)
  • Shredding: if you plan to just securely dispose of the tape, then shredding is a viable physical destruction method to consider. However, shredding isn’t completely secure, and it’s possible for persistent malicious parties to reconstruct the shredded pieces. Also, the small pieces of tape will soon pile up as e-waste.
  • Incineration: that is, burning the tape. Technically more efficient and more secure than shredding, but incineration can release toxic elements into the environment and may not be permitted. Also, on a scale, burning a lot of tapes can be very expensive.
  • Landfill:  disposing of your LTO tapes in a landfill may not be permitted by environmental regulations in your area. Even if it’s allowed, discarding the LTO tape in a landfill without destroying it first (i.e., via shredding) isn’t very secure, as someone else can simply take them out with the right equipment.                                                  

Professional on-site or off-site tape destruction with Big Data Supply Inc. 

As you can see, although there are various methods you can try by yourself to securely wipe or physically destroy your LTO tapes, none of them are 100% guaranteed, and this is where having the help of a professional data destruction company can be very valuable.

Big Data Supply Inc. provides professional data destruction for every storage media format—including LTO tapes, as well as professional tape shredding that complies with every major regulation. With decades of expertise, Big Data Supply Inc. is ready to keep your disposal project within your timeframe, budget, and security standards.

Big Data Supply Inc. will ensure the sensitive/personal data stored within your LTO tapes are securely eradicated and unrecoverable. To ensure compliance, Big Data Supply In.c as a certified ITAD company, can also issue a legally-recognized Certificate of Data Destruction for each secured data tape.

Depending on your industry or location, the Certificate of Data Destruction may be considered a legal requirement. 

Contact Big Data Supply Inc. to discuss your project right away.

Selling your old LTO tape cartridges

As discussed, if your tape cartridge is still in fairly good condition and/or still has a good resale value, then the most viable option is to sell them to maximize its value. This is, of course, after considering the secure data erasure methods we’ve covered above.

In selling your old LTO tapes, technically, you have three main options:

  1. Finding your own buyer. Including listing the goods on peer-to-peer marketplaces like Craigslist or eBay. With this option you have the most freedom and versatility in setting your own price and terms, but not only finding the buyer can be challenging (with the fact that magnetic storage tapes are mainly only sought after by enterprises,) but you’ll also need to do everything by yourself from ensuring the secure data wiping, packaging, to shipping.
  2. Listing on marketplaces. The second option is to list your LTO tape cartridges on Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, etc. It’s typically easier to find buyers on these platforms than trying to find your own buyers, but you’ll also have less freedom and versatility as you’ll be limited by the platform’s/marketplace’s rules. You still need to do everything by yourself and ensure the security of both the physical goods and your data.
  3. Selling to specialist ITAD companies. Selling to IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) companies like Big Data Supply Inc. is the easiest, quickest, and most secure option. The ITAD company will do secure data erasure for you (and provide you with a Certificate of Data Destruction) and can even pick up the goods from your location. While you may get less freedom in setting your terms and price, if you are dealing with the right ITAD company, you can still get a fair market value for your goods. 

Also, if you are a data center, then selling your LTO tapes may be a core aspect of your data center decommissioning process.

Timing is key: maximizing your LTO Tape’s resale value

When should you sell your LTO tape to maximize its resale value?

It’s pretty obvious that the older the LTO tape is, the lower its value will be. Also, whenever a new model and/or major update is released, the old tape cartridge model will typically go down in value. 

For example, when LTO-7 was just released, LTO-6 tapes went down in value quite significantly. So, if you expect a major release, it’s typically a good time to sell before the value goes down further. 

However, if you are planning to get a replacement tape cartridge (or upgrade your tape drive cartridges), selling your old tapes and/or drives too soon may not be a good idea because the price of the replacement tape and drive might still be too high.

In such scenarios, you’d want to find the right time when the old tape’s resale value is still high enough while the replacement’s price has gone down a bit. This is to ensure the upgrade is cost-effective.

Checking the condition of your used LTO tapes

Since magnetic tapes—including LTO tapes—are extremely sensitive to storage conditions, it’s necessary to inspect your LTO tape’s condition on a regular basis. Of course, inspection is especially important when you are looking to sell the tape to appraise its potential resale value. 

While this assessment will not identify all potential issues that can occur in an LTO tape cartridge, these inspection criteria will provide you with a good start.

Note: if your tape fails any of these criteria below, do not play back the tape before fixing the issue, or else you’ll put both the tape cartridge and the drive at risk.

  • Step 1: external container assessment

Check the tape’s physical (external) containment whether there’s any damage that may compromise the tape. If the external container, cassette, or reel has any damage that affects its structural integrity, most likely, the tape inside is also contaminated and/or physically damaged.

  • Step 2: internal container assessment

If the tape passes the external container assessment, the next step is to inspect the edges of the tape and the interior of the container. Look for any symptoms of fungal contamination, like any thread-like growth and any presence of black/brown/mustard colorization. If fungus is suspected, inspection should be stopped. The tape should be isolated and treated by professionals immediately.

  • Step 3: tape odor inspection

Remove the tape from its container, and smell the tape immediately. Tapes with binder hydrolysis (essentially, destroying itself) may give off a distinctive, pungent odor that wears off almost immediately. Tapes with binder hydrolysis can stick in the drive during playback, so avoid playing back the tape before treatment. 

  • Step 4: check for liquid contamination

Tape can be contaminated due to poor storage, so check the tape’s edge and the cartridge for any signs of liquid contamination. 

  • Step 5: check for potential signs of breakdown

Check the tape’s edge for any white powder-like or crystal-like residue. This may indicate the tape is starting to break down. Also, check the insides of the container/reel/cassette for the presence of oxide flakes.

  • Step 6: Inspect the tape pack

Check the tape pack for any irregularities:

  • Spoking: a pattern radiating out from the hub, caused by improper handling/tension.
  • Popped strands: also called “stepped” pack, refers to tape wraps that stick up from the edge of the pack.
  • Shiners: irregular reflection (greater than usual) when you shine a light on the tape. Typically caused by torn or folded tape edges.
  • Windows: irregular gaps in the tape pack, caused by the tape becoming loose on its hub.

To assess your tape pack’s condition, shine the pack from above and slightly behind with a light source (i.e., a flashlight), then tilt the tape edge at around a 45-degree angle from the light source. Inspect the pack thoroughly. 

Selling your LTO tapes to a specialist ITAD company

An IT disposition company specializes in buying, and selling used IT assets, used laptops, desktops and tablets, so they'll handle all the work while ensuring both themselves and your company stay compliant with relevant regulations.

A key advantage in selling through ITAD companies is that they can handle data deletion. Look for R2v3 & RIOS recycling companies like Big Data Supply Inc. that not only ensure secure data deletion but will ensure all processes taken to your LTO tapes, old hard drives from SanDisk, Hitachi or Seagate, and other IT assets are environmentally friendly. 

R2v3 & RIOS certification is awarded only to companies that have achieved responsible recycling standards that also have followed appropriate data security best practices. On the other hand, RIOS certification is an ANSI-accredited standard that acknowledges the service provider's compliance with ISO:9001 (service quality), ISO:14001 (eco-friendly), and OHSAS:18001 (health and safety).

Big data Supply Inc. can also provide Certificates of Data Destruction after your LTO tape cartridge has been securely wiped. In the event that you are needed to prove your company's responsibility to consumer data, these certificates are legally recognized.

Keep in mind that when selling to ITAD companies, you don't set your own prices. Typically these companies will send an offer for your drives, and you can either choose to accept or refuse that price.

Conclusion

Securely wiping sensitive/personal data stored on your LTO tapes can be challenging and time-consuming, especially if you don’t know where to look.

The best, most viable approach is to sell your used LTO tapes and other types of equipment like used CPU and old GPU, to an ITAD company like Big Data Supply Inc., which will handle everything from securing your data to packaging and transporting your old LTO tapes.

Don't hesitate to leave any comments and questions below, and if you'd like to inquire for a quote on selling your old LTO tapes or tape drives, contact us at 1 (866) 411-4890 at or fill out the online form here.

What is LTO Tape and How it Works?

LTO, or Linear Tape-Open, is a format of data storage tape that is widely used all around the world. 

LTO, at the moment, is the most popular data tape format mainly due to its massive storage size, with the latest iteration (LTO-9) capable of holding 18 terabytes of data in a single tape. However, LTO is also highly scalable and adaptable.

In this guide to LTO tapes, we will learn all you need to know about the LTO tape format, including:

  • What is LTO?
  • A brief history of the LTO format
  • Specifications of LTO 
  • Why use the LTO format, and when can it be beneficial?

And more.

Without further ado, let us begin with the basics: what is LTO?

What is LTO?

LTO stands for Linear Tape-Open, and is a format (or technology) of magnetic data tape storage developed in the late 1990s by IBM, HP, and Seagate (that formed the LTO Consortium. LTO is designed as an open standard, and the standard form-factor of the LTO technology is called Ultrium (hence, LTO Ultrium.)

The magnetic data tape storage technology has actually been around since the 1950s, with the half-inch magnetic tape, IBM 7 track, and later IBM 9 track being the pioneering data tape format back then. 

The medium continued to evolve until the late 1990s. By then, Quantum’s Digital Linear Tape (DLT) and Sony’s Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) were the two leading options for high-capacity data tape storage for PC servers and enterprise-grade UNIV systems. Both formats were tightly controlled by their owners, so there was practically no competition, driving their prices high.

The LTO Consortium was formed by IBM, HP, and Seagate to add more competition to this market, and the initial plan was to launch to LTO formats: Ultrium, planned as a single-reel, half-inch tape and Accelis with 8mm tape on dual reels. The plan was to optimize Ultrium for capacity and Accelis for speed and low latency. However, only Ultrium was ever produced for the mass markets.

LTO Ultrium has grown to be a very popular data storage tape format. In 2000, the first iteration of  Ultrium was introduced with a 100 GB native capacity, although initially, it was going to be available with 10 GB, 30 GB, and 50 GB cartridges too, but scrapped. 

Different generations of LTO tapes

As of 2021, there are nine generations of LTO Ultrium tapes (LTO-1 to LTO-9) commercially available in the market, and five more (LTO-10 to LTO-14) are planned. 

You can see the details and differences between these different LTO formats in the table below:

FormatRelease DateUncompressed CapacityCompressed CapacityMax Compressed Speed (MB/s)Max Uncommpressed Speed (MB/s)Time needed to write a full tape at maximum speed (hh:mm)
LTO-12000100 GB200 GB20401:23
LTO-22003200 GB400 GB40801:23
LTO-32005400 GB800 GB801601:23
LTO-42007800 GB1.6 TB1202401:51
LTO-520101.5 TB3.0 TB1402803:10
LTO-620122.5 TB6.25 TB1604004:20
LTO-720156.0 TB15.0 TB 3007505:33
Type M (M8)20179.0 TB 22.5 TB3007508:20
LTO-8201712.0 TB30.0 TB3609009:16
LTO-9202118.0 TB45.0 TB4001,00012:30
LTO-10TBA36.0 TB90.0 TB1,1002,75012:07
LTO-11TBA72.0 TB180.0 TBTBATBATBA
LTO-12TBA144.0 TB360.0 TBTBATBATBA
LTO-13TBA288.0 TB720.0 TBTBATBATBA
LTO-14TBA576.0 TB1,440 TBTBATBATBA

Note: “Type M (M8)” refers to how some LTO-8 drives may write previously unused LTO-7 tapes with an increased, uncompressed capacity of 9 TB. Once this cartridge is initialized as Type M, it may not be changed back into a standard LTO-7 cartridge.

Unlike other storage tape technologies, a Ultrium cartridge can only be used by a particular generation of LTO drive (with the exception of Type M or M8, as discussed above,) with the following rules: 

  • Up to and including LTO-7, a Ultrium drive can read data from a cartridge in the two prior generations (i.e., LTO-7 drives can read LTO-6 and LTO-5, but not LTO-4)
  • An Ultrium drive can write data to a cartridge in its own generation and from one prior generation (in the prior generation’s format.)

How does an LTO tape work?

As a storage tape, an LTO tape reads and writes data in a sequential manner—one file after another—as opposed to hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) that write and read data in a non-sequential way by using rotating disks.

This sequential storage method, however, means the system must start at the beginning of the tape and roll through it to read specific data or write new data. Naturally, this mechanism results in slower read/write speeds than HDDs or SSDs. However, today’s technologies—especially LTO’s advanced linear tape technology—offer similar drive performance to HDDs and SSDs.

Today, there are two primary tape technologies used in the market: linear tape (that is used by LTO) and helical scan.

A helical system writes data in diagonal strips along the tape. To achieve this, two tape reels with quarter-inch-wide tape media are used in the same cartridge. The helical scan technology offers a higher data storage density than linear tape but typically stores less overall data than linear tapes

The linear tape model, however, uses a much different method to read/write data, so these two formats are largely incompatible with each other despite offering comparable performances.

A linear tape (including LTO), on the other hand, has multiple read/write heads reading and writing data along parallel tracks of data that extend the length of the tape. Linear tape media is typically around a half-inch wide, and each tape cartridge only has one tape spool. 

The physical structure of an LTO Tape

LTO tapes are made up of narrower servo bands and wider data bands. To be more exact, each tape has four data bands sandwiched between five servo bands. 

In such configurations, the servo bands act like guard rails for the read/write head or heads. The read/write head positions itself between two servo bands, ensuring compatibility and adjustments between different LTO tape drives. The magnetic servos will also play their parts in error correction and hardware data compression.

Each LTO tape head has either 8, 16, or 32 read/write head elements and 2 servo read elements. If it has 8 head elements, then it has 8 tracks, and the set of 8, 6, or 32 tracks are written or read in a one-way end-to-end pass. In this configuration, the tape head shifts laterally to access different tracks within each band and possibly to also access other bands. This set of tracks (8,16, or 32) is called a “wrap.”

LTO-6 and newer tapes have 32 read/write head elements, and so can read or write 32 tracks simultaneously.

How data is read and written to an LTO tape

Assuming it’s a completely blank, brand-new LTO tape, data writing starts at wrap 0, band 0. The wrap 0 runs from the beginning of the tape (BOT) to the end of the tape (EOT), so this is called a forward wrap. The next sequential wrap (band 0, wrap 1) is a reverse wrap running from EOT to BOT while also including a track that runs along one side of the data band. 

This sequence continues in different wraps, alternating between forward and reverse passes with slight shifts toward the middle of the band on each pass. In such a pattern, the tracks written on each pass partially overlap the tracks written on the previous wrap in the same direction.

This back-and-forth alternating pattern runs from the edges of the tape into the middle and looks like a coiled snake, and thus is often known as linear serpentine recording. The linear serpentine procedure is repeated until all tracks and bands have been read or written as needed, and this method allows the tape to have more tracks than rear/write head elements, thus allowing for a substantially higher data storage capacity than the standard linear recording procedure.

Speed matching/auto speed in LTO tapes

One of the drawbacks of storage tapes (including LTO Tapes) is the condition we call shoe shining

Tape drives spin rapidly, and when the drive finds the data it needs to access, the tape must physically stop and go back to the point where the data is, and this process can be repeated a few times (in a very fast manner) until the right location is met. This start, stop, and backup motion resembles the back-and-forth movement of shining a shoe (hence the name.)

Too many shoe-shining motions can wear out both the tape drive and the cartridge, shortening the life span of both. Also, repeated shoe-shining alone can slow the drive’s read/write time. 

To tackle this shoe-shining issue, newer LTO tapes adopt a built-in speed-matching (or auto speed) mechanism to lower the movement speed when needed and maintain a constant speed. In LTO-8 tapes, the auto (matched) speed ranges between 112 and 360 MB/s.

Data security and integrity in LTO tapes

LTO offers several specific mechanisms in place to offer advanced levels of built-in security.

To date, LTO tapes offer a much lower level of bit-error-rate (BER) than HDDs and SSDs. LTO-7 and LTO-8 tapes offer a BER of 1 x 10-19. Meaning, a typical LTO-8 tape will have one bit error in over 10 exabytes of data, or 1 bit error in more than 800,000 LTO-8 tapes. In comparison, a typical HDD has a BER of HDDs (1 x 10-15).

To ensure that the data written on the tape is accurate and identical to what’s intended, an after-write verification process is used. This is mainly achieved by using the error-correcting code (ECC) on the headers, which is a mandatory part of the recording format on the tape.

Why use LTO tapes over traditional hard drives

Magnetic tape has been used as a data storage solution for decades, dating back to the 1950s. Thus, it’s easy to overlook storage tapes, including LTO tapes, as old and obsolete. 

However, while LTO tapes may not offer the excitement of new SSD or cloud options, they do offer several unique benefits over other formats, especially as a long-term archiving medium. 

——————————————————————————————————————————

Key benefit:

While HDDs and SSDs offer higher read/write speeds than LTO tapes, LTO tapes offer a longer life span, a much lower error rate, and easier maintenance. This makes LTO tapes ideal for long-term archiving when the lower drive speeds won’t be much of an issue.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Below are some key benefits offered by LTO tapes over other formats

Long Lifespan                           

LTO Tapes offer an unmatched shelf life of more than 30 years, making them an ideal choice for long-term archiving. Today’s technologies also ensure it’s easy to find files stored in LTO tapes years and even decades after they were archived.

In comparison, HDDs have a life expectancy of only 5 years on average, with a higher failure rate.

Keep in mind, however, that the 30-year lifespan prediction would require the LTO tape to be stored in an optimal and controlled environment with regulated temperature (18°C) and humidity (40%).

Cost-effectiveness

At the moment, magnetic tapes, including LTO tapes, offer the lowest price per TB over other mediums.

However, when it comes to calculating storage costs, it’s important to consider various factors that would contribute to the total cost of ownership of the LTO tapes, including:

  • Storage tapes may cost more in initial investment than an HDD or SSD since you’ll need to invest in the hardware (tape drive), storage media (tape), and software. However, the total cost per TB remains the lowest. 
  • You may need to invest in manpower to manage the tape libraries (which may not be cheap)
  • A key consideration is that you don’t need to keep tapes powered up, unlike HDDs or SSDs, which will translate into a lower energy cost. However, since storage tapes need to be stored in a regulated environment, air conditioning and humidity control may add to the overall energy expenses.
  • In LTO storage tape systems, the drive and media are separated, so you don’t have to pay several times for DC motors and media controllers. You also don’t have to deal with frequent firmware updates.

Even after taking all these factors into account, including off-site storage cost, storage tapes remain the least expensive storage choice at the moment. This is because the cost per TB (or per GB) drops the more data you store on the LTO tape, which we will discuss below.

Storage capacity

Another key highlight of LTO storage tapes is their storage capacity, with the current LTO-8 offering 12 TB uncompressed/native capacity per cartridge.

With files (especially photos and videos) only getting larger and larger, the storage capacity of LTO tapes will become even more valuable.

Read performance 

An advantage that’s often overlooked is the fact that LTO tapes’ read performance for large files is better than HDDs. LTO-8 tapes offer around 360MB/s for uncompressed data reading, while traditional HDDs only offer 200 to 200 MB/s.

Open standards

LTO, as we know, stands for Linear Tape Open, with Open here referring to ‘open standards.’

LTO’s open format is actually an advantage on its own. Since the technology is available for license by multiple vendors, the LTO format doesn’t hinge on the success or failure of one manufacturer alone, and the competition between these different manufacturers drives the price low (and quality in check.)

In short, the open format will keep LTO tapes competitively priced and constantly updated.

The LTO Consortium (IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Certance) has published a roadmap with predicted specifications for future generations of LTO tapes up to LTO-14, making obsolescence more manageable.

Portability and security

Another important advantage of the LTO storage tape, especially as a long-term archive medium, is its portability. It’s actually much safer to transport LTO tapes than HDDs with their vulnerable motorized parts. 

Also, since we can store tape cartridges 100% offline, they are safe from cyberattacks that rely on internet connectivity, as well as from accidental deletion, glitches, and other issues common in connected HDDs and SSDs. 

It’s also worth noting that it’s relatively easy to implement encryption on LTO tape cartridges. Since LTO-4, users can encrypt data before it is written to tape with Application Managed Encryption (AME). All current LTO manufacturers support AME.

Some drawbacks of LTO tapes to consider

As we can see, there are many benefits of the LTO tape format (and storage tapes in general) over HDDs, SSDs, and other mediums. Yet, it doesn’t mean LTO is a perfect medium without any weaknesses at all. 

Here are some drawbacks to consider before investing in LTO tapes as your storage solutions: 

Maintenance and management 

LTO tape drives must be stored in a room with controlled temperature and humidity, which may translate into additional costs and maintenance challenges. Also, LTO drives have mechanical parts that need to be cleaned and adjusted from time to time. 

Meaning, if you decide to invest in LTO tapes, make sure to plan regular maintenance periods to ensure their longevity. This will also translate into the need to invest inexperienced manpower with adequate technical knowledge.

You’ll need an experienced admin that can also help you in lifecycle management and decide when to upgrade and plan regular migrations.  

Sequential read

LTO tapes are sequential access media. Meaning, they must start at the beginning of the tape and roll through it to write new data or read specific data.  This causes the LTO tapes to be slower than HDDs when it comes to reading data in random order, and when this happens frequently, it may cause wear out of both the tape cartridge and the drive.

However, speed is not a deal breaker in LTO tapes, especially considering we’ll mainly use LTO for long-term archiving when speed isn’t too much of an issue. When storing larger files—including media files—, random-access speed is also less relevant. 

Shoe-shining

We have briefly discussed how excessive shoe-shining can shorten the lifespan of both the LTO drive and cartridge. While newer LTO tapes have built-in speed matching function to tackle this issue, this can still be a concern.

Start-stop operation

In LTO tapes, data to be stored is typically accumulated in buffers first before being streamed onto the tape. 

In such a configuration, when the buffer is not full, the tape may be stopped abruptly, positioning itself for the next delivery of data from the buffer. When this happens frequently, it can lower the LTO system’s overall speed.

A single drive for multiple tapes

Unlike HDDs or SSDs, when dealing with massive data catalogs, we have to eject and replace the LTO tape cartridges as needed. 

In practice, we will need to perform this manually (which can be challenging and time-consuming), or invest in a tape library, where a robot arm fetches and replaces the cartridges into the drives (which translates into additional costs.)

How to ensure longevity of LTO tapes

While LTO tapes are naturally very durable, they do have mechanical moving parts that are subject to wear and tear and magnetic damage. 

Thus, it’s important to perform proper storage and maintenance to ensure longevity.

Here are some best practices to follow:

  • Keep them in a room that is cool and dry with controlled temperature (18°C) and humidity (40%). Avoid damp rooms and excessive exposure to heat and dust.
  • When storing LTO tapes, keep them in their cases as much as possible. Invest in good cases if you didn’t get them with the tapes.
  • Avoid loading tapes with physical issues into the tape drive since it may also cause problems to the drive. Carefully check if your tape has any physical damage—especially if the leader pin is in the right place—before loading it to the drive. 

Buy and sell LTO tapes to Big Data Supply Inc.

LTO tapes remain one of the most cost-effective storage mediums. While it doesn’t have the speed of HDDs and SSDs (although it’s not that far behind), it has the lowest cost per GB than other mediums, making it ideal for long-term digital archiving.

Here at Big Data Supply Inc., we buy and sell new and used LTO data tapes and drives from all brands.

As a leader in corporate tape drive shredding and recycling, we offer the best prices with the highest, most ethical security standards to securely vaporize your corporation's sensitive data. We sell tape drives worldwide, please reach out for delivered pricing, today!

IBM has officially announced it’s proprietary General Parallel File System (GPFS) will soon easily write files to tape on cartridges through an enterprise edition of LTFS. It will be referred to as “Big Blue’s Linear Tape File System.”

As we’ve shared numerous times, LTFS allows for files to be stored in a defined location within a tape. This allows for data to be placed in folders and retrieved with ease. LTFS is currently available on LTO-5, LTO-6, and TS1140 tape.

IBM is currently developing an LTFS EE (Enterprise Edition) that offers a clear and defined link between GPFS and LTFS. There are numerous benefits to this, but the most important one is that when you put an LTFS tape in a tape library, it will be possible to import it with LTFS EE commands. The data will then show up within the GPFS filesystem.

This is possible because LTFS EE will utilize a hidden GPFS filesystem to map all data from LTFS to GPFS.

This finally offers a way for bulk GPFS data that is rarely accessed (but needs to be retained for years to come) to be stored in a cost-effective manner. In other words, storing this data offline on tape is much less expensive than utilizing disk space.

Storing Tier 2 and Tier 3 data on tape is especially ideal in today’s world, where data storage environments are growing faster than ever.

Want to learn more about LTO tape, LTFS, and other related topics? Drop us a call or an e-mail, and we’ll be happy to help!

We work with organizations of all shapes and sizes to help then create and maintain robust, cost-effective data storage environments.

This especially includes the use of tape, thanks to the advancements of the LTO consortium — which includes IBM.

We’ll keep you updated as more details within the industry emerge!

We buy excess new and used data tape media and sell new and certified data tape as well. Just give us a call!

Contact us today: Info@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 949-679-6633

Magnetic tape happens to be one of the oldest and most reliable recording technologies ever created. It uses a spool of linearly oriented tape that is composed of several layers, including a magnetic layer, that passes under a read-write head to record binary bit info into tracks.

As time has progressed, tape cartridges have improved by leaps and bounds. Newest versions, such as the LTO-6 can be used much like disks. Data can be written and retrieved faster than ever.

Another key discovery was IBM and Fujifim’s discovery and use of barium ferrite (BaFe). It is a relatively new tape media coating technology and magnetic particle that lends to tape’s reliability, stability, and efficiency.

While there are several types of tape available, LTO tape is quickly emerging as the leader of the pack. Small, medium, and semi-large organizations are continuing to adopt LTO for data archiving and more.

According to Fujifilm, the past 12 years have seen more than 4 million LTO tape drives and nearly 200 million cartridges shipped. The LTO-6 boasts of 6.25 TB of compressed capacity and an impressive transfer rate of 400 MB/sec.

Beyond LTO tape, other popular tape formats include Oracle’s Sun/STK tape drive and cartridge (for huge organizations), the T10000C (which is much faster than LTO tape and hold quite a bit more data), and IBM’s TS1140 (which rivals Oracle’s Sun/STK in both speed and cost).

Why Tape is Not Dead

Tape isn’t dead for a number of very relevant reasons:

1. It is cost-effective. Disk only solutions tend to be much more expensive.
2. It is reliable. Tape is the most data storage medium on the market.
3. It lasts for 30 years and more. When stored in a stable environment, you can be sure that tape will last for decades.
4. It can’t be hacked. Disks can be hacked and are susceptible to bugs, while tape is stored offline and can’t be touched — unless of course a tape gets into the wrong hands.
5. Tape is recyclable.

Experts are still predicting that tape will play a much larger role in the near future. Organizations are learning the hard way that data can be wiped from disks and lost from the cloud. Backing up data on tape is a must.

Want to learn more about tape? Drop as an e-mail with your questions and we’ll answer!

Contact us today: Info@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 949-679-6633

What is Barium Ferrite & Why Is it Important to Data Storage?

What is Barium Ferrite & Why Is it Important to Data Storage?

Barium Ferrite (BaFe) is one of the saviors of tape media. In fact, it is responsible for pushing tape capacity to entirely new, unprecedented levels.

Fujifilm is the very first media manufacturer that decided to invest in the particle, rather than sticking with the traditional metal particles that have been used for years.

BaFe is amazing for numerous reasons, including the following:

• It’s a naturally stable crystalline particle that never corrodes.
• It doesn’t change chemically over time.
• It consists of ultra-fine particles with higher magnetic properties than metal.
• It allows for high density recording.

This is why Fujifilm’s LTO-6 has been noted as stable, relatable, and robust.

When you compare a standard 3.5” HDD, with an areal density that is approaching 600 Gb/inch-squared, tape densities aren’t nearly as “crowded.” In other words, tape has plenty of room to grow, especially with the help of the BaFe particle.

Beyond capacity, there is another major reason Fujifilm decided to invest in BaFe technology. The company has long understood the limitations of Metal Particulate (MP). Because MP is primarily made of iron, over time oxidation and deterioration occurs.

While previous versions of LTO (LTO-1 to LTO-5) are very stable (and if stored in a stable environment will last for 30 years or more), the LTO-6 ups the ante big time.

Extensive testing has also found BeFe to significantly decrease noise and increase the tape signal. Thus, it can be said that BeFe is contributing to greater levels of efficiency.

It’s safe to say that Fujifilm’s breakthrough means a much greater future for LTO tape. It, along with other breakthroughs including LTFS, will lead to tape playing a much greater role in the storage of all types of data.

Stay tuned to learn more about BaFe and other technologies that are reshaping the way we understand data storage.

Wondering if tape is still a viable choice today’s modern data center? According to experts in the data storage industry, tape is expanding its role far beyond supporting active archives, compliance, and data preservation.

The following are six reasons why LTO tape is growing in popularity:

1. High Multi-TB Capacity
Tape continues to grow its capacity to new heights. For example, each LTO-6 tape offers a whopping 6.25 TB of storage space. This makes tape highly cost-efficient and the perfect choice for housing massive data sets.

2. High Speed Transfer Rates
Once upon a time, tape’s transfer rates were very slow. This limited tape primarily to long-term archives of data that wouldn’t be needed unless a data emergency arose. Currently, the LTO-6 offers up to 400 MB/second. Reading and writing data is quick, easy, and effortless.

3. Linear Tape File System (LTFS)
The new and improved LTO tape filing system, known as Linear Tape File System (LTFS), allows for data to be stored and retrieved in a similar fashion as a disk drive. Gone are the days in which data would be extremely hard to locate.

4. Superior Reliability with Lowest Error Rates
Tape is without a doubt one of the most reliable forms of data storage. While disk can be easily corrupted, hacked, and even fail, tape is more secure than ever. It’s offline nature assures organizations that their data will be safe and sound for 30 years and more.

5. Lowest Total Cost of Ownership
Tape is highly cost effective. Not only is disk storage expensive from an equipment standpoint, it is also extremely expensive to maintain. By offloading some data to tape (rather than only relying on disk), organizations are lowering their data storage costs and making them more efficient.

6. Portability and Scalability
The beauty of tape is that it can be easily moved from place to place and tape libraries are easy to scale out. Where disk can be quite fickle when it comes to portability, tape is amazingly easy. Once data is written to a tape, you can be quite certain the data will be safe and sound, even if a tape (or many tapes) are moved from one location to another.

7. Tape is Recyclable
Data tape media recycling when using a reputable vendor is safe, secure, highly auditable and helps you to recoup your initial expense. Most common form of payment is cash but many IT departments for accounting purposes don't like to show income so we offer credit for new IT products and services.

Big Data Supply, Inc. is always buying excess new and used data tape media tape cartridges. All brands and all formats. Turn your excess inventory of new and used data tapes and we’ll give you cash or credit. The old practice of paying to shred your out of archive data tape media are a thing of the past. Not only is it expensive to shred your unwanted tape it's terrible for the environment and it's not a very auditable process. We offer full chain-of-custody, VolSer and serial number reporting and certificates of data destruction.

Have questions about tape? We’d love to help you out. Please e-mail or call us, and we’ll make sure you find the very best data storage solution to fit your needs.

Tape's Not Dead! Always Buying and Selling Data Tape Media. New and Used.

Tape's Not Dead! Always Buying and Selling Data Tape Media. New and Used.

Because of the advent of the Cloud and the popularity of disk for data storage, LTO tape has at times been overlooked and underestimated.

The following some leading LTO tape myths:

1. Tape Is Dead

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Tape is alive and thriving. This has much to do with the fact that tape a tape-only data structure infrastructure is very expensive and can be unstable. Also, the Cloud is still new territory that comes with some risk.

Tape isn’t dead for several reasons, but mainly because it provides a very stable medium for daily data backups. A growing number of organizations have realized the hard way what happens when disks fail them.

2. You Can’t Use LTO Tape Like a Hard Drive

The newest versions of LTO, the LTO-5 and LTO-6 have LTFS. This makes tape look like and work like a hard drive, which speeds up the process of saving, finding, and retrieving data.

It is true, however, that earlier versions of LTO tape don’t have this capability. This doesn’t make earlier tape cartridges ineffective. They still are amazingly stable and can be stored for 30 years and more.

3. Tape Is Going to Die Off in the Near Future

This is a big myth. The LTO Consortium actually has big plans, as it seeks to develop tapes with massive amounts of storage space. As energy prices continue to rise and organization’s data sets rise exponentially, the consortium intends to create new generations of tapes that will hold gargantuan amounts of data and boast of lightening-fast data transfer speeds.

Beyond the above three myths, it is important to reveal a handful of other truths:

- LTO holds even more value because it can be recycled.
- Plus, organizations can sell used tape and regain some of their initial investment.
- Stability makes it ideal for assuring that industry regulations for data storage are met.

Looking to buy new or used tape? We can help! Please either call or email our team, and we’ll help you gain access to the best pricing on the market.

We can also answer any questions you may have about tape.

support@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 714-647-9000

Is your organization seeing massive increases in data creation, while being challenged to meet specific data compliance rules? Regardless if you must adhere to the regulations of HIPAA, FACTA, Sarbanes-Oxley, SOX, or any others, it can be a major challenge to build up the right infrastructure, policies and procedures to comply.

As revealed by major organizations such as Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, anything can go wrong -- at any time. There can be anything from security breaches, to bugs, to system failures. This is why a reported 80 percent of organizations make use of a combination of disk and tape.

Just when many “experts” in the data storage industry were raving about disk and/or the cloud being the end-all-be-all -- LTO magnetic data media has come to the rescue.

Here’s why:

1. LTO tape is stable and can be stored for 30-plus years.
2. The latest versions of LTO hold massive amounts of data -- so it’s very cost-effective.
3. ZERO energy cost to archive data offline.
4. Disk’s online nature makes susceptible to hackers, bugs, viruses, and more.
5. When disk comes crashing down, LTO backups save the day.
6. Tape can be recycled and reused.

Using magnetic data media along side disk, is a perfect scenario. Data that needs to be constantly and quickly accessed can be stored on disk. LTO data media can be used for continuous backups. Thus, if anything goes wrong, data can be recovered in a timely manner.

When considering data compliance, tape provides 100 percent assurance that an organizations most important data is always secure. The fact that data can completely be expunged via degaussing, also makes tape valuable where compliance is concerned.

Have questions about industry compliance and your data storage setup? We would love to help. Give us a call and we can help point you in the right direction.

Have tape and data center equipment that you want to get rid of? We buy used tape cartridges, disk array, tape libraries, and more.

Contact us today: Info@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 949-679-6633

It’s no secret that the data storage needs of organizations all over the globe are growing by leaps and bounds. This means that it is vital that long-term content archival and data preservation must be at the heart of organizational strategy.

To help you make the right decisions surrounding your data storage needs, we’ve compiled a handful of tips:

1. Consider LTO Tape for Storing Massive Amounts of Data
If you aren’t already aware, the LTO Consortium is continuing to impress with its newest versions of LTO tape cartridges. For instance, LTO-6 (the latest release) can store 2.5 TB on a single cartridge and boasts of a data transfer speed of 160 MBps. It also makes use of the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) for easy management of files. LTO and other tape formats are also recyclable, we buy used data tape cartridges.

2. Educate Yourself on AXF
AXF is a wrapper for a storage object. It works in a very similar manner as LTFS, allowing for files to be grouped together as they would within a file system. The coolest part of AXF is that it works with any storage technology. This means that if you’re using LTO-4, which doesn’t include LTFS, you can still easily organize data for easy retrieval.

3. Think Compatibility
One of the biggest mistakes organizations have made over the years is utilizing numerous different data storage formats and types rather than adopting standardized practices. For example, it’s quite common for one department to use one solution and another to use a completely different one.

Inevitably, at one point down the road organizations decide they want to standardize practices. This means that all data must be migrated, re-cataloged, and more -- which can be very expensive and time consuming.

4. Get the Right Technology Partners
The data storage industry is vast and quite complex.Whenever you invest in a new technology, you have just created a long lasting partnership. You’ll find yourself investing staff, time, and money into setting things up and maintaining your infrastructure as the years progress.

Make sure you invest in technologies and services that will support your needs in the future. One of the reasons we suggest LTO tape as an excellent choice for long-term archival goes far beyond its stability and ability to support massive amounts of data. We are also confident that the LTO Consortium (the organizing body behind LTO tape) will stand behind the product for years to come.

Have questions about data storage? We’d love to answer them! Drop us an e-mail or phone call, and we’ll help you get moving in the right direction.

Info@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 949-679-6633

LTO Tape to the Rescue!

LTO Tape to the Rescue!

The Economist recently detailed how tape (a 60-year-old technology) offers a solution to a modern problem. The problem being -- storing large amounts of data for less money and with ultimate efficiency. LTO Tape to the rescue!

According to the article, tape is currently the oldest computer storage medium that is still in use. The very first use of tape was on the UNIVAC computer in 1951. While tape saw a decrease in popularity by 14 percent in 2012, statistics show that its currently on the rise.

The reason? Alberto Pace of CERN (a customer of ours) suggests there are four main reasons:

1. Due to the latest advancements in tape, data can be retrieved quickly -- even faster than some hard disks.

2. Tape is reliable. Tape can be stored for 30 years and more and still be utilized. And if it snaps, it is possible to splice it back together. Offline storage also keeps tape from being corrupted or hacked.

3. No power needed to preserve data. Tape can be stored off-line, whereas disk relies on power for anything to occur. If the power goes off and a disk ceases to operate, data isn’t available. Plus, as mentioned above, disk can be compromised by hackers.

4. Tape is cheaper - plain and simple. You get more bang for your buck with tape, not to mention it lasts longer than disk.

While tape offers multiple benefits, it must be mentioned that it isn’t the end-all for the majority or organizations. “It forms a crucial part of storage hierarchy,” says Evangelos Eleftheriou of IBM.

There is “hot data” that must be made available for immediate access. This data can be stored within flash memory. “Lukewarm data” is data that is accessed frequently, but not instantly. Disk is commonly used in this case. And finally, there is “cold data” or data that is rarely accessed. This is where tape comes into play.

Finding the perfect balance within you data storage environment is the key to your success. A growing number of individuals and organizations are waking up to the true benefit of tape for long-term storage.

Regardless of what you may have thought: Tape is alive and well going into 2014!

Big Data Supply, Inc. "Buying and Supplying the Data Center" ...We purchase excess new and used data tape media cartridges, tape drives, libraries, hardware.

Contact us via e-mail or phone, and we’ll help you invest in the very best technologies available.

Info@BigDataSupplyInc.com | Toll Free 800-905-7329 | Local 949-679-6633

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