FujiFilm Recording Media USA Launches LTO-9 Ultrium Tape Cartridge

FujiFilm Recording Media U.S.A., Inc. announce the launch and availability of its LTO Ultrium 9 data cartridge (LTO-9).

The company’s LTO-9 complies with the ninth generation LTO Ultrium ⁽²⁾ standards for magnetic tape storage media, marking a new standard of performance for backing up and archiving large volumes of data. The firm’s LTO-9 uses proprietary technology to offer up to 45TB of storage capacity (18TB for non-compressed data), a 50% increase from the previous generation of LTO tape ⁽³⁾.

Magnetic tape is recognized as a storage media for long term archival of high-volume data, safely at low-cost. In addition, tape has a lower environmental impact as there is no need to have it constantly powered-on during storage, thereby reducing CO² emissions generated during its lifecycle by 95% ⁽⁴⁾ when compared to HDDs.

“FujiFilm LTO Ultrium 9 will meet the world’s growing demands for data storage, cybersecurity and reduced climate impact,” said Hironobu Taketomi, president. “This next generation of higher capacity and faster tape storage media represents a significant step towards reducing costs, lowering energy consumption and CO² emissions, and leveraging tape’s inherent security benefits.”

Increased capacity meets growing data demands at lower cost
The amount of data generated worldwide has increased exponentially in recent years with the introduction of 5G networks, high-definition video, the IoT, AI and more. As much as 80% of all data is estimated to be ‘cold’ or rarely-accessed data that can be effectively and more economically moved to a tape storage tier, which offers the lowest TCO of any storage media.

Less energy consumed results in lower carbon emissions
To address climate change, major data centers and private enterprises are actively adopting renewable energy, or building a data infrastructure that minimizes power use.The reduced energy consumption of tape storage simultaneously reduces energy costs and CO² emissions. ⁽¹⁾

Increased capacity. Increased speed.
The company’s LTO-9 achieves its increased storage capacity using barium ferrite (BaFe) magnetic particles, formulated into fine particles with the firm’s NANOCUBIC technology ⁽⁵⁾, evenly distributed to coat tape surfaces, forming a smooth and thin magnetic layer. LTO-9 also delivers data transfer reaching up to 1,000MB/s. for compressed data (400MB/s native), a 25% increase over LTO-8. ⁽⁶⁾

Offline storage offers protection against cybercrime
Tape can be stored offline and off-network, creating a physical ‘air gap’ of protection to minimize the risk of data exposure to cyberattacks. Security for long-term storage of high-volume data has long made tape a preferred choice of major data centers and research institutes.

As the storage tape manufacturer of computer-use magnetic tapes with the leading top global market share ⁽⁷⁾.

LTO Ultrium 9 facts at a glance:

Product name： Fujifilm LTO Ultrium 9 data cartridge

Release date: September 7, 2021

Main features:

• BaFe magnetic particles achieve maximum compressed storage capacity of 45TB
  The LTO-9 features BaFe magnetic particles, formulated into fine particles with the NANOCUBIC technology, evenly distributed to coat tape surfaces, forming a smooth and thin magnetic layer with minimum variations. The data recording density has also been improved to record 8,960 data tracks in 12.65mm-wide tape to achieve the storage capacity of up to 45TB (18TB for non-compressed data), 1.5 times the capacity of the current LTO-8 generation.

• Advanced level of convenience and reliability

  • • LTO-9 allows for high-speed data transfer at up to 1,000MB/s. (400MB/s. for non-compressed data) for efficiency.

    • It provides high-quality replay signals with BER. In addition, the material design has been optimized for accurate tracking performance and operational durability for the magnetic heads in the tape drives, boosting reliability and stability in reading and writing data.

• Safe long-term storage capability at low cost for energy-saving data storage

  • • LTO-9 has superior TCO ⁽⁸⁾ to HDD and cloud, capable of holding a large amount of cold data at low cost.

    • To ensure the safety of valuable data, tape offers ‘air gap’ data protection, physically isolated from the network, thereby minimizing the risk of data damage or loss caused by system failures, exposure to computer viruses and cyberattacks.

    • An accelerated life test ⁽⁹⁾ has indicated that magnetic tape using BaFe magnetic particles maintains stable magnetic characteristics for over 50 years.

    • LTO-9 can store data with lower power consumption than HDD, contributing to reducing the environmental impact of data storage.

Main specs:

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⁽¹⁾ Source: Brad Johns Consulting, LLC Improving Information Technology Sustainability with Modern Tape Storage (registration required)
⁽²⁾ Linear Tape-Open, LTO, the LTO logo, Ultrium and the Ultrium logo are the registered trademarks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Quantum in the United States and other countries.
⁽³⁾ FujiFilm LTO Ultrium 8 Data Cartridge that complies with the eighth generation LTO Ultrium standards
⁽⁴⁾ When saving 100PB of data for ten years, storing it on magnetic tape generates 95% less CO² emissions (approx. 2,400 tons) during the storage than doing so on HDD. (Source: Brad Johns Consulting, LLC, Improving Information Technology Sustainability with Modern Tape Storage)
⁽⁵⁾ Fujifilm’s nanotechnology-based magnetic tape technology with thin coating to achieve high-density magnetic data recording. It consists of the ‘nano-particle technology’ for formulating magnetic particles into nano-sized particles, ‘nano-dispersion technology’ for evenly dispersing and arranging nano-sized magnetic particles, and ‘nano-coating technology’ for achieving the coating of the ultra-thin layer.
⁽⁶⁾ Drive dependent
⁽⁷⁾ Manufacturer share, according to FujiFilm
⁽⁸⁾ TCO, which encompasses all costs associated with the operation introduction of a storage drive, library, etc., including initial cost, cost of maintenance and cost of electricity consumed.
⁽⁹⁾ According to the Tape Storage Technical Committee of JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association)