The HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960 Tape Drive represents HP's third-generation of LTO tape drive technology. Positioned as the highest capacity drive in the StorageWorks family, the Ultrium 960 features an 800 GB compressed (2:1) storage capacity using new LTO 3 media. By doubling the capacity of current Ultrium drives, HP customers now require fewer data cartridges to meet their storage needs, significantly reducing their IT costs and increasing their ROI. The Ultrium 960 also features a compressed (2:1) data transfer rate of 160 MB/s. Using a new 16-channel recording head, an Ultra320 SCSI interface, and increases in media tracks and bit density, the HP Ultrium 960 sets a new performance benchmark as the world's fastest tape drive. For customers that continually experience shrinking backup windows, the Ultrium 960 is the ideal direct-attach backup storage solution for enterprise and mid-range server, as well as entry-level hard drive arrays.

The Ultrium 960 supports the industry’s most comprehensive list of compatible hardware and software platforms. Each drive option includes HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express Single Server Edition backup/recovery software and the HP StorageWorks Data Protector Express Bare Metal Disaster Recovery option, as well as support for HP StorageWorks One-Button Disaster Recovery (OBDR) and HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tools (L&TT). The Ultrium 960 Tape Drive is fully read and write compatible with all second-generation Ultrium media, and adds a further degree of investment protection with the ability to read all first-generation Ultrium media as well. The Ultrium 960 also represents HP’s first tape drive solution to deliver support for Write-Once, Read-Many (WORM) media. This feature allows customers to implement a cost-effective solution to secure, manage, and archive compliant data records to meet stringent industry regulations. HP customers can now manage all of their backup and archiving data protection needs with just one drive.