LTO Ultrium Tape Technology Sales Grow by Double Digits According to Latest Leading Market Research Firm's Report

Business Wire, June 17, 2008

15 Percent Year Over Year Growth in Total LTO Tape Drive Shipments Demonstrate Strong Acceptance for the Format and Advantages Tape Can Bring to Businesses

SILICON VALLEY, Calif. -- HP, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation, the three technology provider companies for the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Program, today announced that the LTO Ultrium format has shown strong performance during 2007 with double digit sales growth, according to new industry data from IDC. This strong growth is driven by the need to protect data using a best practices approach as well as the security, energy efficiency and low TCO advantages that tape storage offers organizations.

The report shows that total midrange tape drive shipments grew by 10 percent in 2007 when compared to 2006 and LTO tape drive shipments grew 15 percent. According to IDC, over $883.1 million of LTO tape drives shipped in 2007.

"The LTO format has evolved throughout each generation to provide ever-higher capacities, ever-higher performance and one of the lowest total cost of ownership propositions for midrange data protection in the industry," said Robert Amatruda, analyst, IDC. "The LTO share numbers demonstrate that LTO tape continues to thrive, provides a vital, foundational part of a best practices approach to data protection, as well as provides energy savings over disk-only solutions to support green data center initiatives."

The format's adoption in tape automation is up three percent from the end of 2006.1

"Tape is one of the most efficient ways to address data protection, delivering cost-efficiency and energy efficiency to business," said Rob Clark, senior director, removable storage solutions for Quantum. "As we look over the landscape of challenges that storage administrators need to address in their day-to-day operations, we are committed to providing the functionality and value that business will require today and in the coming years."

LTO format generation 4 technology delivers the backup and archiving features needed by today's storage personnel, including high capacity, blazing performance and substantial data protection features. And, with low energy consumption, LTO tape products can also provide organizations with a green backup and archiving solution for their data centers.

Providing up to 1.6TB of capacity (assuming 2:1 compression) per cartridge, LTO-4 tape drive products bring transfer rates up to 240MB per second (assuming 2:1 compression), offers WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality that provides cost-effective means for storing data in a non-rewriteable format to help address compliance needs. Support for 256-bit AES-GCM encryption capabilities at the tape drive level is designed to enable the writing of encrypted data to the LTO Ultrium tape cartridge, helping to protect information on the tapes during storage and transportation.

LTO format generation 4 drives support backwards-compatible read-and-write capability with LTO generation 3 cartridges and backward read capabilities with LTO generation 2 cartridges, to help protect the investment customers have made in LTO products.

How to License LTO Ultrium Technology

The LTO Program has historically offered several different license packages - from enhanced packages that provide the specifications and licenses to manufacture LTO Ultrium products, to basic packages, providing LTO format specifications.

Buyers seeking LTO Ultrium format-compliant products should look for the LTO Ultrium format compliance verification trademarks on both tape drives and data cartridges. Storage and media manufacturers interested in licensing LTO formats may obtain information by contacting the LTO Program through www.ultrium.com/contact.php.> About Linear Tape-Open (LTO)

The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and continuously enhanced by technology providers HP, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation (and their predecessors) to help address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. This ultra-high capacity generation of tape storage products is designed to deliver outstanding performance, capacity and reliability combining the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi-directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout, and error correction.

The LTO Ultrium format has a well-defined roadmap for growth and scalability. The roadmap represents intentions and goals only. There is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. Format compliance verification is vital to meet the free-interchange objectives that are at the core of the LTO Program. Ultrium tape mechanism and tape cartridge interchange specifications are available on a licensed basis. For additional information on LTO, visit www.trustlto.com and the LTO Program Web site at www.ultrium.com.

1"IDC Worldwide Tape Qview Q4 CY07" by Robert Amatruda

Note: Linear Tape-Open, LTO, the LTO logo, Ultrium, and the Ultrium logo are trademarks of HP, IBM and Quantum in the US and other countries.