Spectra acts on LTO-6 introduction

Spectra Logic has launched a worldwide Linear Tape Open Generation 6 (LTO-6) tape drive pre-purchase program. With general availability of LTO-6 tape drives and media expected in 2012, Spectra customers can now join the LTO 6 pre-purchase program and receive LTO-5 drives today for use until LTO-6 drives become available. Once LTO-6 is released, pre-purchase customers will be at the top of the initial shipment list to receive new LTO-6 drives from Spectra.

For Spectra’s larger libraries, including the T-Finity, T950, T680, T380 and T200, LTO-6 tape drives will include native 8 gigabit (Gb) fibre channel interfaces that are compatible with existing 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb fibre channel switches and host bus adapters. For the Spectra T50e and T120 libraries, LTO-6 tape drives will come in either 8Gb fibre channel or 6Gb SAS interfaces. LTO-6 will offer a storage capacity of up to 8.0 terabytes (compressed, or 3.2 TB native) – more than double the capacity of the previous generation, and expected transfer rates of up to 525 megabytes per second (compressed, or 210 MB/s native).

LTO-6 drives are designed with backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with LTO-5 cartridges, and backward read capabilities with LTO-4 and LTO-5 cartridges, to ensure investment protection and to ease deployment. In addition, LTO-6 drives will be fully compatible with Spectra’s BlueScale software and features, including BlueScale Encryption and Key Management, Spectra’s Media Lifecycle Management (MLM), Data Integrity Verification, drive-level AES-256 bit encryption key generation and WORM media capabilities.

“Once again Spectra is ahead of the pack with its LTO-6 pre-purchase program, which allows customers to drive forward with new tape library hardware today rather than delaying purchasing decisions until new technology becomes available,” adds Keith Warburton, director, Global
Distribution, a SpectraEDGE value add channel distributor based in the United Kingdom. “With Spectra Logic’s exclusive LTO-6 advance purchase program our resellers’ customers can future-proof their storage requirements, lower their total cost of data protection, and greatly increase their capacity and performance in the same or smaller foot print.”