Tape standards war to end

HP/Compaq merger will decide between Ultrium and SuperDLT

The merger of Hewlett Packard (HP) and Compaq could decide the outcome of the battle between super-tape storage standards.

Two products have been fighting it out to dominate the growing market for super-tape, which offers far superior capacity and transfer rates to traditional products.

The SuperDLT (Digital Linear Tape) format was developed by Quantum and sold largely by Compaq. It has one big advantage in that it is 'backwards-compatible' with existing DLT and DLT1 tapes. Its rival is the Ultrium tape standard, developed by the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) consortium which includes HP, IBM and Seagate.

Because HP and Compaq back competing technologies, the merger could decide which standard becomes dominant.

IDC senior research analyst Zarah Damji has put her money on Ultrium. "Compaq clearly leads the mid-range tape automation market. If the HP/Compaq merger goes ahead, then HP will push LTO Ultrium tapes through Compaq. Things will change dramatically," she said.

Gartner vice president and research director Josh Krischer maintained that Ultrium is already winning. "LTO is leading because SuperDLT doesn't have the backing of a big consortium," he said. "If the HP/Compaq merger goes ahead, then Compaq will be selling Ultrium as well."

LTO made further headway this week as international industry body the European Computer Manufacturers Association accepted Ultrium as an industry standard, and announced the sale of a million cartridges since the format went into production a year ago.

But Krischer suggested that LTO users should be wary about claims of interoperability between the three vendors' products.

"If there is a standard, then customers benefit because they can shop around. But in practice products are still not 100 per cent compatible," he said. "It's still difficult to take tape from one vendor's device and move it to another's without problems."