LTO PROGRAM MAKES 40TB ANNOUNCEMENT AND LTO ROADMAP UPDATES
DOWNLOAD PDF VERSIONSUBSCRIBE TO NEWSBYTESData keeps piling up along with customer demands, which means long term data information storage becomes even more strategic for AI insight and business decision making. In this LTO Newsbytes article we will review key tape technology announcements from the Technology Provider Companies (TPCs) that can make a big difference in your comprehensive storage strategy.
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LTO-10 CARTRIDGE HAS BECOME SUPERSIZED
The capacity for an LTO-10 data cartridge is 30 TB native with up to 75 TB compressed. The highest capacity thus far for LTO tape technology. But wait, there’s more. In November, 2025, the TPCs: HPE, IBM and Quantum Corporation, announced specifications in a press release for a new generation of LTO-10 Ultrium data cartridges. These cartridges will have a 40 TB native capacity with up to 100 TB compressed. How is an increase of an additional 10 TB possible for LTO-10 technology?
Let’s take a look.
This big jump in capacity is enabled by advancements in the LTO-10 drive head design and a new base film material. As explained in the November press release, “The 40 TB LTO-10 cartridge achieves its breakthrough capacity by using an advanced base film technology known as Aramid. Aramid permits the manufacture of significantly thinner substrate, enabling longer tape lengths in a standard LTO Ultrium cartridge form factor.” As noted, this new material provides an extra 10 TB of native capacity over the 30 TB LTO-10 cartridges on an LTO-10 tape drive. As 40 TB cartridges become available customers will be able to choose between the 30 TB and 40 TB native capacity cartridges based upon the customers individual cost and data storage needs.
Jon Brown, Senior analyst at Omdia stated, “Enterprises are moving from ad-hoc retention to intentional ‘archive architectures’ that serve AI, legal, and sustainability goals. This new 40 TB LTO-10 capacity point advances that architecture: fewer cartridges, fewer frames, lower energy and a stronger security posture.”
It is expected that 40 TB cartridges will be available for shipment for the first quarter of 2026.
LTO ULTRIUM ROADMAP UPDATE
LTO technology has a 25 year history of providing secure, innovative, and reliable data storage for organizations around the world. The LTO Ultrium Roadmap provides a history of LTO generation capacity points and planned projections for future generations, currently up through Gen-14. The The Technology Provider Companies have optimized the LTO roadmap capacity projections for gens 11-14. These updated projections are aligned with anticipated storage requirements.
The new capacity targeted for LTO generation-14 is 365 TB native and up to 913 TB compressed. As explained in the press release, “The new capacity points will prioritize reliability and compelling value in terms of cost per terabyte, and ensure everyday LTO Ultrium tape solutions will remain a practical and affordable storage choice for every type of business or workload.” See the LTO Ultrium Roadmap here.
