Quantum DLT 2000 Handbook page 174

Seamless Transition
DLTtape products, current and future, offer backward compatibility to
the large and growing installed base of DLTtape systems. If you are
running an IT operation, you will probably consider updating your
backup strategy to take advantage of the dramatic increases in capacity
and speed proposed for the next-generation technologies. However,
your first question will probably be, "Can we do this without disrup-
tion." If you are using DLTtape technology, and if you switch to a non-
DLTtape technology, there will be disruption. And you will not be able
to use the new technology to read existing DLTtape media. Even if you
are not using DLTtape technology, you may suffer disruption if you
move to the competing next generation technologies, because in many
situations they are not compatible with current technology.
But if you move from DLTtape to Super DLTtape technology, you
continue to handle your backup, disaster recovery, and other storage
management functions exactly as you do today. More importantly,
you are able to read existing DLTtape IV cartridges on your new
Super DLTtape drives.
DLTtape IV is the media that we ship today on all our DLT 4000,
DLT1, DLT 7000, and DLT 8000 drives; it accounts for the great major-
ity of current DLTtape media shipments. Because of the extraordinarily
rapid growth of DLTtape technology, the DLTtape IV media, which
was only introduced in 1998, already represents a large part of the total
installed world population of DLTtape media. Thus, Super DLTtape
drives are able to read a very large percentage of the data written to the
large and growing installed base of DLTtape media. Therefore, users
can take advantage of the dramatic advances of Super DLTtape tech-
nology without diminishing or disrupting access to existing data.
Ubiquity
The definition of "open standards" is up for debate. UNIX is con-
sidered an open standard. Yet, there have been literally dozens of
17.6 SUPER DLTtape: THE FUTURE OF DLTtape TECHNOLOGY