- LTO’s 40TB cartridge pushes tape storage into the AI-driven future
- Aramid movie offers magnetic tape the power to develop its lifespan
- Magnetic tape storage stays the most cost effective offline safeguard for vital enterprise information
Lengthy dismissed as outdated know-how, magnetic tape storage continues to defy predictions of extinction.
The LTO Program, a collaboration between HPE, IBM, and Quantum, has unveiled a brand new era of LTO Ultrium cartridges providing 40TB of native capability.
The event coincides with a renewed roadmap stretching to Technology 14, which targets a 913TB capability milestone.
A brand new strategy to tape supplies
The 40TB LTO-10 cartridge’s capability enhance is essentially pushed by “Aramid,” a brand new base movie materials that permits thinner and smoother tape, permitting for longer tape lengths with out increasing the cartridge’s measurement.
Mixed with refinements to drive head design, the brand new media achieves a further 10TB over the 30TB mannequin whereas remaining suitable with present LTO-10 drives.
“Enterprises are transferring from ad-hoc retention to intentional ‘archive architectures’ that serve AI, authorized, and sustainability objectives,” mentioned Jon Brown, Senior Analyst at Omdia.
“This new 40TB LTO-10 capability level advances that structure: fewer cartridges, fewer frames, decrease power, and a stronger safety posture.”
The improve targets enterprises that must retailer giant datasets over a long time, from scientific analysis to monetary data, whereas preserving energy and upkeep prices low.
Alongside the 40TB announcement, the Know-how Supplier Firms have adjusted their roadmap for upcoming LTO generations, spanning from LTO-11 to LTO-14.
The roadmap now peaks at an bold 913TB per cartridge, aligning with projected will increase in storage demand from AI and data-intensive purposes.
“AI has turned archives into strategic belongings,” mentioned Stephen Bacon, Vice President, Information Safety Options Product Administration, HPE.
“The brand new 40TB LTO-10 cartridge will assist enterprise-class organisations—throughout healthcare, monetary companies, media, analysis, manufacturing, the general public sector and past—consolidate petabytes effectively, strengthen cyber resiliency with true offline air-gapping, and hold long-term retention reasonably priced and sustainable.”
By prioritizing price per terabyte, reliability, and long-term scalability, the revised plan goals to maintain tape aggressive in a panorama more and more dominated by solid-state efficiency.
The roadmap additionally accounts for quicker storage and retrieval processes, supporting exabyte-scale infrastructure development throughout industries.
Testing for the brand new 40TB cartridges will start shortly, with availability anticipated in early 2026.
Its offline nature gives a defence towards cyberattacks and information loss from {hardware} failure.
This new roadmap means that tape is not going to solely survive the AI period however proceed adapting to it.
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