Just saw this announcement: HP AND IBM PASS MECHANISM COMPLIANCE TESTING FOR LTO ULTRIUM FORMAT GENERATION 4 TAPE DRIVES
Brings New Generation of Tape Hardware with Drive-Level Encryption, WORM, Capacity and Performance Enhancements SILICON VALLEY, CALIF. - (April 11, 2007) - HP, IBM and Quantum, the three technology provider companies (TPCs) for the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Program, today announced that HP and IBM have completed the LTO Ultrium format generation 4 compliance and data interchangeability testing process. With this qualification, HP and IBM will be authorized to display the LTO Ultrium format generation 4 logo on their tape drives. In adherence to its compliance testing, the LTO Program requires that all licensees pass a series of compliance verification tests, which call for data interchangeability testing before being issued a license and the right to display the LTO Ultrium trademark. Compliance testing of all Ultrium products is completed annually to help ensure that all manufacturers adhere to the LTO Ultrium format specifications. Buyers seeking Ultrium format-compliant products should look for the LTO Ultrium format trademark logo on both tape drives and data cartridges. "LTO Ultrium generation 4 delivers the features that storage customers require, including 256-Bit encryption for added security of offsite media, and higher capacities to support their ever-growing data storage needs. This is another key milestone to have successfully passed the LTO Program's compliance verification tests," said Bob Wilson, vice president, Nearline Storage Division, HP. "The ability to introduce products that fully comply with the LTO Ultrium specification and support data security with tape drive encryption allows our customers to take advantage of the open format flexibility, total cost of ownership and investment protection benefits of LTO generation 4 technology," said Cindy Grossman, vice president, IBM Tape Systems. The LTO Ultrium format generation 4 specification, announced in January of this year, allows for licensees to deliver a doubling of storage capacity over generation 3, with the LTO Ultrium format generation 4 cartridges storing up to 1.6TB of data compared to 800GB on the previous generation*. Transfer rates of the new generation are also improved, with backup and archiving performance reaching speeds up to 240MB per second in generation 4 versus up to 160MB per second in generation 3*. As with generation 3, the LTO Ultrium format generation 4 continues to offer WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality that provides a cost-effective means for storing data in a non-rewriteable format to help address compliance requirements. For additional security, generation 4 supports 256-Bit AES-GCM encryption capabilities at the tape drive level that are designed to enable the writing of encrypted data to the LTO Ultrium tape cartridge, helping to protect the storage and transport of sensitive information. LTO Ultrium generation 4 also delivers investment protection for business, providing for drives with backwards-compatible read-and-write capability to store and retrieve non-encrypted data with the Ultrium format generation 3 cartridges, and backward-read capabilities with generation 2 cartridges. -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Yuzik Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 4:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: LTO Tape Encryption Ideas LTO4 will include the encryption capabilities. http://www.ultrium.com/newsite/html/news_4_17_06.html : : Greg Yuzik : : -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelly Lipp Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 12:32 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [ADSM-L] LTO Tape Encryption Ideas Folks, I've looked at the Redbook highlighting TS1120 tape encryption to get the overall idea. In the more general case of LTO3 and LTO4 drives, which can encrypt data, how are folks implementing this? Thanks, Kelly J. Lipp VP Manufacturing & CTO STORServer, Inc. 485-B Elkton Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80907 719-266-8777 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
