LTO Tape Shipments Reach 176.5 EB in 2024, Marking 15.4% Growth

July 24, 2025 — The LTO Program Technology Provider Companies (TPCs), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, International Business Machines Corporation and Quantum Corporation, have released their annual tape media shipment report, detailing year-over-year shipments through the fourth quarter of 2024.

The report reveals a record 176.5 Exabytes* (EB) of total tape capacity (compressed) shipped in 2024, representing a growth of 15.4% over 2023. This is a result of evolving infrastructure requirements fueled by continued enterprise implementation of modern technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), which has contributed to significant unstructured data growth and shifts to lower cost hybrid cloud environments.

“Setting a new growth record for the fourth year in a row, LTO tape technology continues to prove its longevity as a leading enterprise storage solution,” said Bruno Hald, General Manager, Secondary Storage, Quantum. “Organizations navigating their way through the AI/ML era need to reconfigure their storage architectures to keep up, and LTO tape technology is an essential piece of the puzzle for those seeking a cost-friendly, sustainable, and secure solution to support modern technology implementation and the resulting data growth. We look forward to introducing the next iteration of LTO tape technology this year to bring enhanced storage capabilities to the enterprise.”

The key benefits of LTO tape technology include low total-cost of ownership – which organizations can determine for themselves using the LTO Ultrium TCO Calculator – as well as robust sustainability and security features. In addition, LTO-10, the latest format specification for LTO Ultrium tape drives and media, will provide the same blazing speed as LTO-9 with higher capacity and density (30 TB per cartridge, up to 75 TB compressed), quantum-safe encryption, and zero required optimization time to help prepare organizations for the fast-evolving future of data.

“Continued growth in LTO tape shipments shows the important role that tape plays in modern data architectures, especially as companies deal with rapidly growing amounts of data,” said Phil Goodwin, Research Vice President, Infrastructure Software Platforms, IDC. “In fact, tape’s unique combination of scalability, cost-efficiency, and cyber resilience makes it a valuable component for enterprises seeking secure, sustainable long-term data storage.”

With shipped capacity reaching an all-time high in 2024, LTO tape technology demonstrates its continued relevance in the storage space as organizations require vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to make the most of modern technologies for maximum business impact. Increased storage needs can quickly lead to surging costs, significant power consumption, and expanded security risks.

However, LTO tape complements disk, flash, and cloud solutions in tiered storage architectures to provide a low-cost, last line of defense against ransomware and other security threats. Further, offline copies of LTO tapes separate data archives from the connected environment, providing greater assurances for data recovery. Whether an organization is archiving big data for analytics, managing hundreds of hours of media content, or simply transporting large files across storage environments, LTO tape provides businesses of all types with a cost-effective, sustainable, and protected solution for saving the data they need to power evolving workloads and drive business forward.

Access the LTO Program’s annual shipment reports for tape media via the LTO Program website, www.lto.org.

*Assumes a 2.5:1 compression achieved with larger compression history buffer available beginning with LTO generation 6 drives.

About Linear Tape-Open Format

The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable, adaptable open tape format developed and continuously enhanced by technology providers Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM Corporation and Quantum Corporation (and their predecessors) to address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. This ultra-high capacity generation of tape storage products is designed to deliver outstanding performance, capacity and reliability combining the advantages of linear multi-channel, bi- directional formats with enhancements in servo technology, data compression, track layout, and error correction. Since the first LTO products were brought to market, over 5.7 million drives, 383 million cartridges, and 649 billion GB of media capacity have been shipped, making LTO Ultrium the most successful tape format in history. The LTO Ultrium format is licensed to, and format- compliant products are made by, multiple manufacturers; their production is not limited to one sole proprietor.

The LTO Ultrium format has a well-defined roadmap for growth and scalability. The roadmap represents intentions and goals only and is subject to change or withdrawal. There is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. The roadmap is intended to outline a general direction of technology and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision. Format compliance verification is vital to meet the free-interchange objectives that are at the core of the LTO Program. Ultrium tape mechanism and tape cartridge interchange specifications are available on a licensed basis. For additional information on the LTO Program, visit the LTO Program website at at www.lto.org.

Source: LTO Program