IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS), which my husband Michael Richmond architected, won a Pick Hit award at the National Association of Broadcasters conference last week.

In short, LTFS puts a file system on top of magnetic tape.  This overcomes many of the disadvantages of tape, such as the long access time due to the linear nature of tape.  It also keeps the advantages of tape, such as the inexpensive cost per terabyte and its longevity.  It’s a big deal for media and entertainment companies who create and consume many terabytes of data per day, and who want to store it less expensively and more reliably than they can on hard drive.

I know that this isn’t quite one of my usual topics of user experience, VMware, or Macs, but I think it’s worthwhile.  Of course, LTFS does support Macs (obviously important for media and entertainment companies!), so maybe it’s not too far outside my usual topics.