Spectra Logic Advances Perpetual Archive Strategy with Enterprise-Wide LTO-10 Support

BOULDER, Colo., May 28, 2025 — Spectra Logic, a global leader in data management and data storage solutions, today announced enterprise-wide support for LTO-10 tape technology across its full portfolio of tape libraries*, including the Spectra TFinity, Spectra T950, Spectra Cube, and Spectra Stack models.

LTO-10 introduces a new architectural foundation for tape, delivering 30 terabytes (TB) of native capacity and 400 MB/s transfer speed per cartridge—advancing the Spectra strategic vision to deliver scalable, sustainable, and cyber-resilient perpetual archival infrastructure for long-term data preservation.

With this announcement, Spectra Logic continues its leadership in tape innovation by delivering the tenth generation of LTO technology—a milestone that marks 25 years since the format’s inception. From LTO-1 in the year 2000 to LTO-10 in 2025, the format has delivered a 300-fold increase in capacity per cartridge, demonstrating unmatched extensibility and reliability in the data center.

As data retention requirements escalate across industries, driven by AI model training, sensor networks, compliance, and long-tail analytics, organizations need more scalable, cost-effective infrastructure to manage massive data growth without compromising sustainability or security.

LTO-10 provides 66% increased capacity per cartridge over previous-generation LTO-9 technology, delivering significantly greater storage density and offering the lowest total cost of capacity compared to HDD-based object storage and cloud-based cold storage services. Supported interfaces include 32 Gb/s Fibre Channel and 12 Gb/s SAS.

SAS-equipped models are interoperable with the Spectra OSW-2400 Optical SAS Switch, enabling significant additional savings on end-to-end connectivity between servers and tape drives located within data center distances up to 10,000 m² (107,639 sq ft.).

While cloud and disk remain viable for high-access workloads, they are increasingly challenged by rising long-term cloud storage costs, energy-hungry disk systems, and escalating cyber risks. LTO-10 reaffirms the case for on-premises, object-based tape archives, enabling organizations to repatriate archival data from cloud and reduce operational costs while regaining control over long-lived data assets.

LTO-10 technology can also enhance sustainability efforts compared to always-on disk arrays, consuming 90% less energy per petabyte than a comparable enterprise HDD on an annual basis. At scale, shifting on-premises cold storage from disk to tape can conserve significant power, increasing available energy to fuel AI and other growth initiatives or harvest savings.

“Spectra Logic keeps moving the ball forward with incredible scale and capacity,” said Stephen Foskett, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit, Futurum Group. “LTO-10 is a major win for Spectra Logic customers, as they can upgrade their existing tape libraries for far greater capacity in the same footprint. Thanks to this seamless upgrade path, customers can modernize their data protection and archive environment at lower cost and eco impact.”

LTO-10 is ideal for a broad spectrum of organizations operating at the forefront of data-driven discovery and innovation, such as high-performance computing laboratories, weather forecasting agencies, research universities, space agencies, and pharmaceutical research teams. It is also well-positioned for artificial intelligence pipelines, media & entertainment asset archival, and for lowering the cost of hyperscale and cloud cold storage infrastructure.

“This year marks 25 years since the launch of LTO-1 in the year 2000, and the debut of LTO-10—the tenth generation—underscores the remarkable longevity and innovation of the LTO standard,” said Nathan Thompson, CEO and Founder of Spectra Logic. “With a 300-fold increase in capacity per cartridge over that time, LTO has proven itself to be one of the most sustainable, extensible, and cost-effective technologies in IT. And as AI accelerates the scale of unstructured data retention, LTO-10 arrives exactly when the world needs it most.”

Spectra Certified Media for LTO-10

Spectra will offer LTO-10 media at launch through its proven Certified Media program. Each LTO-10 cartridge undergoes a rigorous factory inspection and verification process. Each cartridge is fully integrated with Spectra Media Lifecycle Management (MLM) software that proactively tracks, manages, and provides reports on all aspects of tape usage and health status. MLM helps manage tapes efficiently from start to end with continuous assessments on more than 40 different metrics throughout the life of each tape. All Spectra Certified Media comes with a lifetime replacement guarantee against media defects.

Availability

LTO-10 technology is available for immediate ordering. Customers may add LTO-10 drives to any new Spectra library builds or upgrade existing systems using full-height Fibre Channel or SAS drive options. Initial shipments of LTO-10 drives and Certified Media will begin in June 2025.

For more information, or to schedule a sales consultation, please visit www.spectralogic.com/contact.

*Libraries immediately supporting LTO-10 include Spectra TFinity, TFinity ExaScale, TFinity Plus, T950, T950V, T680, T380, T200, Spectra Cube, and Spectra Stack models.

About Spectra Logic

Dedicated solely to data storage innovation for more than 40 years, Spectra Logic helps organizations modernize their IT infrastructures and protect and preserve their data with a broad portfolio of solutions that enable them to manage, migrate, store, and preserve long-term business data, along with features to make them ransomware resilient, whether on-premises, in a single cloud, across multiple clouds, or in all locations at once. To learn more, visit www.spectralogic.com.

Source: Spectra Logic