The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, International Business Machines Corporation and Quantum Corporation, today announced specifications for a new generation of LTO Ultrium data cartridges with 40 TB native capacity (up to 100 TB compressed, assuming 2.5:1 compression), extending the industry's most widely adopted open tape format for long-term, cyber-resilient, and energy-efficient data preservation. At the same time, the TPCs are optimizing the technology roadmap for future LTO products to better align with customer priorities regarding reliability, affordability and efficiency for managing colossal amounts of data.

As organizations generate and retain unprecedented volumes of data to power AI, analytics, data insight, and compliance, the 40 TB LTO-10 cartridge offers enterprises and other large-capacity users superior storage density to efficiently archive greater amounts of information. This leap in capacity is made possible by innovations in the LTO-10 drive head design and a new, highly stable base film material, which together unlock the increased native media capacity of 40 TB. This new 40 TB cartridge is compatible with the same LTO-10 drive organizations are using for the 30 TB cartridge.