The LTO Program, consisting of HPE, IBM, and Quantum, announced new LTO Ultrium cartridges with 40TB native capacity. This upgrade applies to the LTO-10 generation and builds on the previous 30TB model. Cartridges maintain backward compatibility with existing LTO-10 drives through refinements in drive head design. Testing starts soon, with availability planned for early 2026.
Engineers achieved the capacity jump by adopting Aramid as the base film material. Aramid enables thinner and smoother tape layers, which pack more data into the same cartridge dimensions without increasing physical size. This material strengthens tape lifespan and supports higher recording densities essential for modern workloads. Enterprises benefit from reduced cartridge counts, lower energy use, and improved security through fewer physical storage points.
Tape storage serves critical roles in enterprise environments despite perceptions of obsolescence. It provides the lowest cost per terabyte for offline data retention spanning decades, ideal for scientific datasets, financial records, and compliance archives. Power and maintenance requirements stay minimal compared to always-on disk or flash systems. The offline capability offers air-gapped protection against ransomware and cyberattacks, a key advantage in current threat landscapes.
Alongside the 40TB reveal, the LTO consortium updated its multi-generation roadmap. LTO-11 through LTO-14 target progressive capacity increases, culminating at 913TB per cartridge. This trajectory matches exabyte-scale growth projections from AI, media processing, and research applications. Transfer speeds will also rise to handle faster retrieval from vast archives. Stephen Bacon, HPE’s Vice President for Data Protection Solutions, emphasized tape’s role in consolidating petabytes affordably across healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and public sectors.
Tape’s persistence counters public skepticism, including comments from figures like Elon Musk favoring newer formats. Flash drives and SSDs excel in access speed but fall short on long-term, high-volume cold storage economics. Magnetic tape fills this gap reliably, with proven durability exceeding 30 years under proper conditions. The AI surge amplifies demand for scalable, secure backups that tape uniquely addresses.
