LTO-9 18TB
18TB native capacity per LTO-9 cartridge for dependable long-term storage.
Long-term archives with durable economics.
Automated LTO tape libraries for secure, compliant retention at petabyte scale and the lowest practical cost per gigabyte.
Long-Term ArchiveCurrent media Next generation Scale Throughput Security Automation
Automated retention that keeps cold data protected.
SmartComm tape libraries use robotic media handling and current LTO technology to simplify large archival estates. They are purpose-built for 3+ year retention, delivering offline protection, predictable expansion and durable media for regulated and data-intensive organizations.
Typical use cases
- 3+ year data retention
- Finance and legal compliance
- Healthcare records
- Research archives
- Cold storage
- Offline backup copies
Key specifications
LTO-10+ 30TB+
30TB+ cartridge capacity for higher-density future archive growth.
Petabyte capacity
Library architectures that expand from compact autoloaders to PB-scale archives.
300-500MB/s per drive
Parallel tape drives increase aggregate backup, restore and migration performance.
Hardware encryption
Encryption protects archived data throughout its retention and transport lifecycle.
Robotic operations
Robotics automate cartridge inventory, loading and movement between slots and drives.
Recommended configurations
| Configuration | Drives | Media / slots | Primary role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1 LTO-9 autoloader | 8-20 tapes | Departmental backup and archive |
| Enterprise | 8 drives | 200+ slots | High-volume centralized retention |
| Compliance | Policy-sized library | Air-gapped vault | Immutable offline retention |
Competitive positioning
Tape provides the lowest cost per GB for long-lived cold data, with 30-year retention and a physical air gap that strengthens resilience against online threats.