Long dismissed as outdated technology, magnetic tape storage continues to defy predictions of extinction.
The LTO Program, a collaboration between HPE, IBM, and Quantum, has unveiled a new generation of LTO Ultrium cartridges offering 40TB of native capacity.
The development coincides with a renewed roadmap stretching to Generation 14, which targets a 913TB capacity milestone.
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A new approach to tape materials
The 40TB LTO-10 cartridge’s capacity increase is largely driven by “Aramid,” a new base film material that enables thinner and smoother tape, allowing for longer tape lengths without expanding the cartridge’s size.
Combined with refinements to drive head design, the new media achieves an additional 10TB over the 30TB model while remaining compatible with existing LTO-10 drives.
“Enterprises are moving from ad-hoc retention to intentional ‘archive architectures’ that serve AI, legal, and sustainability goals,” said Jon Brown, Senior Analyst at Omdia.
“This new 40TB LTO-10 capacity point advances that architecture: fewer cartridges, fewer frames, lower energy, and a stronger security posture.”
The upgrade targets enterprises that need to store large datasets over decades, from scientific research to financial records, while keeping power and maintenance costs low.
Alongside the 40TB announcement, the Technology Provider Companies have adjusted their roadmap for upcoming LTO generations, spanning from LTO-11 to LTO-14.
The roadmap now peaks at an ambitious 913TB per cartridge, aligning with projected increases in storage demand from AI and data-intensive applications.
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“AI has turned archives into strategic assets,” said Stephen Bacon, Vice President, Data Protection Solutions Product Management, HPE.
“The new 40TB LTO-10 cartridge will help enterprise-class organisations—across healthcare, financial services, media, research, manufacturing, the public sector and beyond—consolidate petabytes efficiently, strengthen cyber resiliency with true offline air-gapping, and keep long-term retention affordable and sustainable.”
By prioritizing cost per terabyte, reliability, and long-term scalability, the revised plan aims to keep tape competitive in a landscape increasingly dominated by solid-state performance.
The roadmap also accounts for faster storage and retrieval processes, supporting exabyte-scale infrastructure growth across industries.
Testing for the new 40TB cartridges will begin shortly, with availability expected in early 2026.
Despite Elon Musk’s public dismissal of older storage formats, tape continues to serve a specific function that neither flash drives nor SSD systems can replace.
Its offline nature provides a defence against cyberattacks and data loss from hardware failure.
This new roadmap suggests that tape will not only survive the AI era but continue adapting to it.
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