The was released in 2010. It's supported by major tape vendors, including IBM, HP, Quantum and Oracle, as well as the LTO Consortium. Oracle has integrated its T10KC enterprise tape drives with LTFS.

LTFS itself is a file system with a POSIX interface that applications such as Windows File Explorer can access. A user can then add a network-attached storage stack (e.g. NFS and/or CIFS) on top of LTFS, allowing seamless access to files from any desktop. LTFS is enabled by the dual-partitioning capability of LTO-5.

Quantum's new Scalar LTFS appliance is aimed at providing new methods of access to archived content on LTO tape cartridges. The appliance features a network-attached storage (NAS) front-end. By using the LTFS format, data is stored on tape as files, making it easy for users and applications to organize and search archived content.

Because it works with existing application and file system tools, LTFS-based content can be more easily accessed using NFS or CIFS protocols. That means data can be more easily migrated between systems and made accessible for long-term data protection and archival storage.

The Scalar LTFS appliance can also be used to import and export LTFS open-standard media into a Quantum StorNext File System, offering a content distribution alternative for cloud services and applications such as video archiving.