WORM Technology
With the growing importance of regulatory compliance - including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and SEC Rule 17-a-4(f) -- there is a need for a cost-effective storage medium that can preserve corporate data in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable and unalterable format.
As administrators continue to seek methods to overcome storage challenges, new technologies such as LTO WORM (Write Once, Read Many) functionality can help them address the ever-growing business compliance and regulatory requirements.
Found in Generation 3, 4 and 5 formats (as well as included in the roadmap for Generations 6, 7 and 8), the LTO Program WORM implementation is designed to provide users with a very cost effective means of storing data in a non-rewriteable format to address compliance regulations.
Robust algorithms using the Cartridge Memory (CM), in conjunction with low level encoding that is mastered on the tape media at the time of manufacture, are designed to prevent tampering. The LTO Ultrium format Generation 3, 4 and 5 specifications include the ability for WORM enabled and non-WORM enabled drives to co-exist. In addition, appending data at the end of a WORM cartridge which was previously written to is supported, thus allowing users to take full advantage of the high capacity tape media.
For more information on how LTO Ultrium WORM technology addresses the applicable conditions of SEC Rule 17a-4(f) read the Cohasset Associates compliance assessment that is included in our whitepaper area.
