You can attach a 30TB LTO-10 tape drive to an Apple Mac Mini, for SSD like speeds
- High-capacity LTO-10 drive provides 30TB of native storage for Apple Mac Mini configurations
- Offline tape storage adds security benefits with blank spaces and built-in encryption
- LTO-10 desktop unit delivers SSD-like transfer speeds for long-term archiving tasks
If you have serious storage needs, you’ll be interested to know that it’s possible to connect a 30TB LTO-10 tape drive to an Apple Mac Mini, which could be a useful, if rather expensive, solution for your long-term backups.
The SymplyPRO XTF SAS LTO-10 Desktop Tape Drive supports native transfer speeds close to what a standard SATA SSD can achieve.
LTO-10 cartridges offer 30TB of native capacity and a claimed read and write speed of 400MB/s. This figure increases to 75TB if you use compression (2.5:1) with a potential transfer rate of 900MB/s to 1000MB/s, although this depends entirely on how easily the data compresses.
LTO-10 only
The SymplyPRO XTF SAS LTO-10 Small Full-Height Chassis is available for purchase from B&H for $11,395.25. Connecting to a Mac Mini or any recent macOS system is possible via a Thunderbolt to SAS compatible setup.
The drive includes two 12Gb/s SFF8644 ports and comes with the cable required for this link. It also comes with a data cartridge, cleaning cartridge, international power cords, and Symply’s LTFS software, so buyers can start writing to tape right away.
The unit supports WORM cartridges and 256-bit encryption, which is useful if the goal is to secure long-term retention rather than short-term access.
Because LTO cartridges can be stored offline, they are often used to create an air gap that protects backups from remote attacks.
Combined with encryption, this approach adds another convenient layer of protection in case a cartridge unfortunately ends up lost or misplaced.
LTO-10 is the latest generation of tape format and the drive is not compatible with LTO-9 media, so existing libraries cannot be reused.
However, it will be compatible with the new 40TB native LTO-10 enterprise cartridges (up to 100TB compressed) announced by the LTO program last month.
The 30TB LTO-10 tapes cost around $300 each, compared to the LTO-9 generation, which will cost you around $100 (18TB native/45TB compressed).
Still, the ability to connect a high-capacity desktop tape system to a compact Apple machine could appeal to archivists, production teams, or users who need cold storage without using dedicated rack hardware.
Of course, tape isn’t designed to replace common SSDs, but its capacity, low error rates, and long shelf life are attractive for storing bulk data that doesn’t need to be accessed very often.
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