The Straight Skinny On LTO.

HP, IBM, Seagate talk the talk for CTR 

Linear Tape Open (LTO) is a tape technology that is designed to standardize the technology of high-end tape storage. While DDS (or DAT) is manufactured by a handful of competing companies at the mid-end and Travan similarly is a multi-vendor platform occupying the tape backup low end, the market segment primarily served by DLT had only a single manufacturer until Tandberg recently became a second source manufacturer. At the very high end, most products are similarly proprietary with single source drives and multiple automation vendors and system integrators.

The situation is getting somewhat more confusing with competing 8mm formats, including Exabyte's Mammoth and the unreleased Mammoth II, Sony's AIT and AIT2, and Ecrix with a low priced 8mm drive that claims DLT-like performance. Benchmark is about to release a (relatively) low priced drive that uses DLT cartridges, can read DLT4000 cartidges, and is expected to sell for prices closer to DDS than DLT. Tandberg's SLR continues to fight for market space, while Sony's Digital Tape Format (DTF), using a half-inch tape, fights for a position at the high-end.

The LTO Initiative was designed to deliver a pair of evolving tape drive standards: Ultrium, which delivers high performance and high capacity, and Accelis with a primary focus on providing very high tape performance. Initially, three vendors, IBM, Seagate, and Hewlett-Packard were the companies committed to manufacturing the drives. Fujitsu is an LTO licensee that will manufacture Ultrium mechanisms and that may become a fourth drive manufacturer. Accelis, for now, appears to be taking second place to Ultrium with none of the three hardware companies currently developing Accelis drives.

To assess the current status of LTO at mid-year, Computer Technology Review sent a questionnaire to Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Seagate, followed by an interview with executives from each of the three companies. Kevin Perry, executive director of marketing and business development at Seagate, Barry Rudolph, business line manager for Removable Media Storage Solutions at IBM, and Jim Browning, R&D manager of Computer Peripherals Bristol (CPB) at Hewlett-Packard were interviewed by Mark Brownstein, Computer Technology Review's executive editor.

CTR: Have you begun shipping sample Ultrium drives to customers?

IBM: Engineering drives are currently being made available both to our internal automation and systems groups, as well as external automation and OEM customers. Right now, we are in the process of working with key OEMs and automation providers... from our perspective, we're proceeding, and at a point where we will get samples that will be very usable qualification and evaluation samples to the rest of our key players. This summer, we are getting qualification units out.

HP: Sampling has started with key OEMs and reactions have been very positive.

SEAGATE: We have begun development of drives based on the Ultrium specification.

CTR: What's your timetable for shipping LTO drives into the channel?

SEAGATE: Regarding volume shipments, at the present time, we're clearly looking at the next 6-9 months. A lot of discovery goes on when you do new technology, some of those plans are built into the schedule and allotted for because you know you have to do invention around certain issues--a new format, new technology, but some things pop up that you haven't covered for. We've been tracking internal schedules reasonably well, but haven't done advanced reliability and performance testing (yet).

HP: HP has not yet announced this, but we would expect to see drives in the reseller channel by early 2000.

IBM: We are currently planning on having drives available for shipment in 4Q99 or early 1Q00. The time for volume (shipments) is late this year or early next year. A lot depends on the development status and how quickly it can be integrated into products and plans of our key customer set.

CTR: With DLT, 3480, and other roughly comparable tape technologies already in wide use by many of LTO's potential customers, why would a company want to use the still unproven LTO?

HP: LTO offers the most powerful and credible roadmap. It offers a four-generation roadmap, offering capacities that start at 200GB and reach l.6TB (compressed). It is able to do this by being based upon existing, proven technologies that provide low risk and high data integrity, and without being compromised or restricted by a legacy format. The ability to deliver on this leading roadmap is also low risk as the technology steps between generations have been identified and assessed.

IBM: LTO is a technology backed by three of the most influential storage companies in the world. It will be a truly open technology certified by an independent group that will ensure strict specifications will be met. LTO offers a published roadmap where future generations are expected to double the capacity and data rates every 18 to 24 months. Customers will also be able to choose from multiple suppliers for both drives and media.

SEAGATE: We developed LTO technology in response to numerous customers' demands. Many customers have long expressed dissatisfaction with multiple technologies that are only available from single-source manufacturers. Those customers have told us they wanted tape technology that is available from several competitive, reliable sources. They asked for data interchangeability between competitive products. They asked for a robust, reliable tape technology that provides extremely high data integrity. They asked for a tape technology with a roadmap that handles their needs well into the future. These customers asked for a tape technology like Linear Tape-Open and those are the customers we expect will strongly consider products based on LTO Technology.

CTR: Do you expect Ultrium to displace other existing technologies or will Ultrium be used primarily in new installations?

IBM: Ultrium drives will be positioned with capacity, performance, and price to compete effectively and displace existing technologies.

SEAGATE: It's a big marketplace out there. It makes for good reading to talk LTO vs. DLT or Super DLT and so on. In our mind, this is coming back more than anything to offering the marketplace what it's looking for. The marketplace likes to have choices it can make--choices in technology, choices in supplier. In a competitive environment you tend to get the best of the best. In the end, Super DLT vs. LTO will be less important to the marketplace than delivering a new technology that suits the marketplace. (Our view is) that the technologies will be a bit more synergistic than antagonistic.

Not everyone will replace the investments they've made in other tape technologies overnight. Businesses are going to evaluate what is the best backup solution for their backup needs now and in the future. The LTO specifications allow development of Ultrium-based products that can be easily integrated into existing installations such as libraries without abandoning current technology investments.

Many variables come into play. In most data centers or large corporations, there typically tend to be different technologies that coexist with each other. Rare is it that there are any technology paths that are homogeneous. It tends to be synergistic.

Customers in the end look for solution providers to give recommendations and support for the format they are using. If LTO delivers an advantage in the solution provider's mind over DLT, it will be offered by the solution providers and they will support it. The customer will be less concerned about legacy and more concerned about what is the best solution to his needs today.

HP: The Ultrium format has been developed to meet the growing amount of data our customers need to protect. This capacity growth occurs in both existing and new system installations, so we can expect the Ultrium format to be selected and recommended in both.

DLT, SuperDLT, AIT, and Mammoth 2 are a number of technologies that are vying for the same market space. DLT is clearly the dominant one. You will see Ultrium drives and DLT drives in the same shop. We see DLT and DDS in the same shops today. You can probably look harder and find some with DLT and AIT. It doesn't have to be one or the other. People need to pick the solution that solves their problem best.

CTR: Which software vendors have committed to developing backup software for LTO drives?

HP: HP has worked with all the leading software vendors to ensure its Ultrium products are supported before product launch. To enable software vendors to start developing support for Ultrium and HP's unique features, HP developed an emulator. This has already been provided to the software vendors (as exclusively revealed by CTR in March).

IBM: All of the major storage software vendors have shown high interest in LTO technology.

SEAGATE: No software specifications were necessary to develop the LTO specs. However, as companies work toward developing products, it's only logical they will test for support from all the leading software vendors and key OSs and NOSs. At Seagate, we've seen a lot of interest in LTO technology from all the major software vendors who work with us on an ongoing basis.

CTR: Will media be available concurrent with drive availability?

HP: Yes. Five media licensees have already been announced and more are expected soon. This support from media manufacturers at time of launch is unprecedented and is a testament to the support that LTO is receiving in the industry.

SEAGATE: With a plentiful list of media developers signed up, including Fujifilm, Emtec, Quantegy, Verbatim, and Imation, it would seem highly likely that media will be available.

IBM: Media will be available at the same time as the drives.

CTR: With a common specification, how will your company differentiate its offerings from the competition?

HP: Product announcements will give you details, but expect to see differentiation on interface, connectivity, transfer rate, support, price, manageability/usability, automation features, etc. We would like to be recognized as the leader in our market segment. Much of what we're counting on is that competitive forces with an open standard will quickly drive us and anyone competing in this standard to meet or exceed our customer's needs. This will probably result in some growth in the areas we're trying to aim at. What is more important is to satisfy customer needs better--that's the basic premise behind the open standard to begin with.

IBM: The key differentiators for Ultrium drives will be performance and time to market. The specification defines the format--the format of the data that needs to be put on tape, etc. We all must stay within the constraints of the format. Nothing constrains the physical design of the product, per se. For example, a product with a better cost structure is something all of us strive for. Something that will integrate into an automation platform with ease is something we strove for. Something with the technology in it that will be more extensive with better time to market is on our radar screen. Design, cost, performance, and time to market are fair game. There are certain constraints put on the product format that are of great advantage to us. We've got a lot of degrees of freedom.

SEAGATE: We won't make product announcement until 4Q this year. We don't want to announce too far ahead of time. What we perceive as advantage today may not be seen as advantage at the time of announcement.

We are absolutely focused on delivering highly reliable, heavy-duty products that meet the duty cycles you find in the automation environment and in the server environment. The market requirements for robustness of this product stand head and shoulders above those of any products we have done.