Linear Tape File System - LTFS a new era for LTO-5 tape applications

Allows the use of standard file operations on LTO-5 tape media

Is your data protection and archive constrained by the ability to easily access, update and share files stored on tape? The latest HP StorageWorks LTO -5 Ultrium 3000 and 3280 Tape Drives are now available with the Linear Tape File System (or LTFS) for open standard LTO Ultrium tape drives.

HP LTFS makes tape self-describing, file-based, and easy-to-use and provides users with the ability to use standard file operations on tape media for accessing, managing and sharing files with an interface that behaves just like a hard disk. In addition, LTFS provides the ability to share data across platforms, as you would with a USB drive or memory stick. Simply load a tape into the drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as a disk.

By upgrading to HP StorageWorks LTO-5 Tape Drives many application areas are already able to cut storage space; reduce energy and lower operational costs. Now with the addition of the HP LTFS feature, they can also benefit from faster access to files in archive, and from greater data mobility by simplifying the sharing of larger files:

• Media industry video archive
• CAD/CAM files used in design and drawing content for manufacturing, architecture etc.
• Hi-resolution images such as Medical X-Rays or other Health industry images
• Surveillance video
• Information archival for e-discovery purposes

In addition to the wide range of benefits that HP LTO-5 Tape drives have to offer, HP LTO-5 with Linear Tape File System (LTFS) functionality also delivers:

• Faster access to data: When a tape is mounted, the files and directories stored on it can appear on the desktop in the same way as a disk directory listing.
• Simple drag and drop: LTFS increases ease of use, simply drag and drop files to and from the tape.
• Compatibility across your environment:Tape media written using the LTFS is self-describing so that data recovery from tape is independent of any hardware or software platforms.
• Increased data mobility: Easily share content to increase data mobility; tapes written with the HP LTFS can be exchanged more easily between users working in different operating systems, using different software and in different locations.
• A single storage media standard: Unify organization-wide file sharing with HP LTO-5. Tapes can move across libraries and vendors with the ease of video-cassettes, while files on tape can be accessed using straight-forward drag-and-drop.

The HP LTFS technology requires a drive firmware level that supports dual partitioning and a software download that contains the “run-time” executable (Linux & MacOS) that writes files in LTFS format on an LTO-5 tape.