I often get asked the question, “what does the future hold for data tape in terms of capacity?” Usually followed up with “Are we on the threshold of the super paramagnetic limit? Will we need some new technology or breakthroughs to keep up with the explosion of data? Are currently published roadmaps really achievable? Will tape continue to play a critical role in data protection and emerging applications such as active archiving?”
To get started answering these questions, let’s look at the midrange tape market where LTO clearly dominates all other technologies with close to a 90% share. LTO Generation 4 is currently the most popular format with a native capacity of 800 GB. But the latest generation introduced in 2010, LTO-5, has been growing rapidly in popularity with a native capacity of 1.5 TB. LTO-5 also features a major breakthrough known as LTFS, or Linear Tape File System, which allows for dual partitioning of the tape where a portion of the tape is dedicated to a file index to enhance file management and facilitate data exchange and long-term data retention.
Next in line for LTO is Generation 6, with a native capacity slated for 3.2 TB, followed by LTO-7 at 6.4 TB and LTO-8 with a pretty impressive native capacity of 12.8 TB. We expect to see LTO-6 in 2012 or early 2013 with the next generations every two to three years thereafter. But back to the questions, is this truly achievable?
The answer is a resounding “yes!” and we can look to the enterprise tape market for a good indication of tape’s future direction.
In 2006, Fujifiim and IBM demonstrated a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape of 6.67 billion bits per square inch. This meant the ability to achieve multi-terabyte capacities of up to 8.0 TB on a single tape cartridge. The tape sample used was based on Fujifilm’s NANOCUBIC technology incorporating a new Barium Ferrite (BaFe) magnetic particle with the ability to resist outer magnetic interference and to maintain a strong magnetic signal even at greatly reduced dimensions compared to commonly used metal particles.
Once again in 2010, Fujifilm and IBM announced a new world record in data density on linear magnetic tape, achieving 29.5 billion bits per square inch using the new Barium Ferrite magnetic particle, this time with a perpendicular orientation, an even smaller particle size and a more advanced coating and dispersion technology. This translates into the possibility of developing a single tape cartridge capable of holding a massive 35 TB of native data. That’s 23 times the capacity of today’s LTO-5 and far exceeds the LTO roadmap requirements for LTO-8!
Earlier this year, the first product based on this technology came to market in the form of Oracle’s enterprise T10000-C drive and cartridge with a native capacity of 5.0 TB. This product represents a 3X capacity increase compared to the latest LTO-5 product and clearly speaks to the reality of increasing capacity on tape.
With the explosion of tier 3 unstructured file data, regulatory compliance and the need to keep data for longer periods in active archive mode, expect to see further advances in tape capacities as tape continues to play a vital role in cost effective, reliable, long-term mass storage.