Mount Athos, located on a rugged peninsula in northeastern Greece, is home to the world’s oldest monastic
community, dating back to 840 AD. This sacred mountain, rising over 2,000 meters, is home to 20 monasteries that
have preserved and safeguarded the history and culture of Orthodox Christianity for centuries. Among them, the
Simonos Petras Monastery boasts one of the world’s largest collections of Orthodox art, including precious
frescoes, ancient icons, imperial decrees, and Byzantine artifacts—irreplaceable cultural treasures of humanity.
These invaluable assets, accumulated over centuries through donations from Byzantine, Russian, and Slavic
emperors, represent an unparalleled cultural heritage.
The monastery's greatest mission is ensuring the preservation of this shared cultural legacy for future
generations. However, due to the risks of natural degradation over time, the monks have actively pursued
digitization projects since the 1990s. Using high-end scanners and photographic equipment, they generate
high-quality digital images, inevitably producing massive amounts of data. With a rapidly growing volume of
digital archives, the need for reliable backup and long-term storage became critical. To meet this challenge,
the monastery chose UNITEX's highly reliable LTO tape drives and UNITEX FASTapeLT software.
The ongoing digitization project utilizes UNITEX tape drives and the data
copying software, UNITEX FASTapeLT for Windows, for archiving and backing up data.
Limitations of Conventional Backup Methods
Initially, the monastery relied on optical storage media (M-Discs) and hard disk arrays for data preservation.
However, as the digitization project progressed, the limitations of these methods became apparent.
Optical storage media had significant capacity constraints, requiring numerous discs to store large,
high-resolution files, which made management increasingly complex. Meanwhile, the hard disk arrays posed
persistent risks of mechanical failure, raising concerns about losing irreplaceable cultural heritage data.
With the ever-growing volume of data, it became clear that a more reliable and efficient storage and management
solution was essential.
The invaluable
cultural heritage housed by Simonos Petras Monastery
Transformative Improvements with LTO Tape Systems
To address these data storage challenges, Simonos Petras Monastery decided to adopt the latest LTO tape
technology. UNITEX’s LTO tape drives deliver significantly higher reliability compared to traditional storage
systems.
Unlike hard disks, tape media has fewer mechanical components, substantially reducing the risk of sudden
failures. This provides secure long-term storage for invaluable digital data, ensuring that once-lost data can
never be irretrievably lost. Freed from constant anxiety over data loss, the monks were able to focus more on
their digitization efforts.
Additionally, the large capacity of LTO tapes allows efficient storage of high-resolution image files and
extensive archive data that were previously difficult to manage with optical media. The ease and speed of
operation also significantly reduced the workload of the monks.
Enhanced Operational Efficiency with UNITEX FASTapeLT for Windows
UNITEX’s data copy software, FASTapeLT for Windows, plays a crucial role in streamlining data management.
Designed specifically for UNITEX tape drives, the software ensures optimized data transfer.
Where traditional backup methods required extended time for transferring large volumes of data, FASTapeLT for
Windows dramatically accelerated the process with its superior copying speed. This allowed the monks to allocate
more of their precious time to monastic life and research activities.
Moreover, the software’s high versatility enables repeated backups to other storage media beyond tape. This
makes it easier to implement multiple backups, further enhancing the reliability of data protection.
Continuous Adaptation to Technological
The technology for digitizing cultural heritage continues to advance daily, with new high-resolution scanning
techniques and image processing methods emerging. UNITEX solutions offer the scalability to adapt flexibly to
such technological innovations.
The monastery aims to build a more efficient cultural heritage preservation system by integrating these new
technologies in the future. Through an ongoing partnership with UNITEX, innovative approaches leveraging the
latest technologies are expected to become possible. By combining the traditions of the world’s oldest monastery
with cutting-edge digital technology, Mount Athos is poised to set a new model for cultural heritage
preservation.
Thanks to UNITEX’s tape drives and FASTapeLT for Windows, Simonos Petras Monastery can securely and efficiently
store the digital data of its priceless cultural assets. This ensures that the centuries-old history and culture
of Orthodox Christianity will be safely passed down to future generations.
Product
USB-Connected LTO Tape Drive
+ LTFS Data Copy Software
LT80H2 USB
+ UNITEX FAStapeLT
- Long-term preservation of large-scale data with highly reliable LTO tapes
- Capable of storing vast amounts of image data generated daily, ranging from hundreds of gigabytes to
several terabytes
- Ideal for long-term storage of research data due to the short lifespan of hard disks
Recommended for Customers Like These
- Those in industries such as broadcasting, video production, surveillance cameras, and healthcare,
considering the storage or utilization of large-scale data
- Those exploring solutions for storing massive amounts of images, such as surveillance footage or sensor
data
- Those seeking media capable of transferring and sharing large-scale data with other organizations
* The listed company name and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective
owners. The contents are as of June 2025.
Please note that the information contained in this catalog is information at the time of interview and it may
have been changed when it is viewed. time it is viewed.
