LTO stands for Linear Tape-Open and is the storage technology developed as an open-standards (available to the public) alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape data storage formats that were available before the late 1990s. Ultrium tape drives are the tandard form of LTO technology originally released in 2000.

To ensure that the Ultrium super data storage remained accessible to the public, Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, and IBM initiated the LTO Consortium which manages the licensing and certification of media and mechanism manufacturers and directs the development of the open source technology. When first released in 2000, Ultrium tape drives, the Ultrium 230, could hold 100 GB of data in a single cartridge. Ultrium 960, released in 2007 can now hold 8 times that much, 800 GB in the same size cartridge.

As a result, the LTO Ultrium tape drives have been the most popular super tapes since 2002. they are in frequent use with both large and small computer systems, especially for back up. Their low price and high effectiveness keep them in great demand. The LTO technology is used to create similar products by a multitude of technology providers that offer high-capacity, high-performance, and reliable solutions. Manuafacturers of Ultrium Tape Drives Hewlett-Packard has 3 LTO Ultrium Tape Drives; Ultrium 230 with a 100GB capacity at 15MBs or 200GB at 160 MBs, the 469 with a 200GB capacity at 30MBs or 400GB at 60MBs, and the 960 with a 400GB capacity at 8-MBs or 800 GB at 160MBs. IBM, Quamtum, Tandberg Storage, Fujifilm, Imation, Maxell, Sony, and TDK. These companies all produce the LTO super tape technology because of the open tape/source format and its power, scalability, and adaptability. Hewlett-Packard LTO Ultrium Tape Drives HP is one of the leading manufacturers of LTO super tapes today. In 2001 they originated the first Ultrium half-height tape drives on the market and today, they are still the only manufacturer of half-height LTO-1 drives on the market. Because of being so compact, these Ultrium tape Drives can fit into most servers, thereby taking up less rack space.

HP's Ultrium tape drives are fully read and write compatible with the entire line of HP drives as well as other super tape manufacturers. HP is one of the leading manufacturers because of their low cost, high reliability, universal standards, and flexibility of deployment, and high performance Ultrium tape drives. They are a popular choice for any company. Hewlett Packard Disaster Recovery programs for Ultrium Tape Drives Disaster recovery is a critical issue for every company and data network. HP has made sure that the LTO Ultrium tape drives that they manufacture support their HP StorageWorks One-Button Disaster Recovery or OBDR program. This unique firmware was designed to be simple. It works in conjunction with backup software like the Ultrium tape drives, to ensure that in any type of disaster scenario, critical data of is recovered quickly and completely by pressing a button. Coupled with their Protector Express recovery software, Ultrium tape drives provide worry free data storage.