The LTO program technology provider companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, International Business Machines Corporation and Quantum Corporation, published specifications for a new generation of LTO Ultrium cartridges with 40 TB native capacity. The TPCs said the 40 TB cartridge can reach up to 100 TB compressed assuming 2.5 to 1 compression and is positioned as an extension of the industryu2019s widely adopted open tape format for long-term, cyber-resilient, and energy-efficient data preservation.
The increased native capacity is enabled by innovations in the LTO-10 drive head design and a new highly stable base film material. The announcement notes that the 40 TB cartridge is compatible with the same LTO-10 drives organizations are using for the existing 30 TB cartridges. The specification update focuses on delivering greater storage density so enterprises and other large-capacity users can archive larger volumes of information more efficiently.
Alongside the cartridge specification, the TPCs said they are optimizing the high-density roadmap for future LTO products to better align with customer priorities around reliability, affordability and efficiency. The companies framed the timing around the trend of organizations generating and retaining unprecedented volumes of data to power Artificial Intelligence, analytics, data insight and compliance. The combined messaging emphasizes both immediate capacity gains via the 40 TB media and a strategic shift in product planning to address long-term customer needs for scalable, cost-effective archival storage.
