Tape still isn’t dead, but shipments slipped by 16 exabytes in 2025
LTO program is confident this is a glitch, not terminal unspooling
Tape storage is far from being obsolete, yet its shipments declined by 16 exabytes in 2025, according to the LTO Program. This alliance between HPE, IBM, and Quantum Corp reports that 160.3 exabytes of Linear Tape-Open (LTO) tape were shipped in 2025, down nine percent from 176.5 exabytes in 2024. The 2024 figure was a record high, making 2025 the second-highest shipment year for the format.
Storage analyst Tom Coughlin attributed the drop to an evolving international trade environment causing more cautious purchasing behavior from businesses across various industries. Despite the setback, Coughlin believes that the tape storage market could still perform impressively, particularly as power availability constraints favor tape's low power consumption.
The group also highlighted that Q1 2026 shipments were 57 percent higher than the same period in 2025, which they attributed to a new 40TB tape cartridge compatible with 30TB drives. However, tape's main drawback is its slow restore and retrieval times, and the need for careful storage. Hyperscalers have attempted to rival tape with cloud-based archival-storage-as-a-service, which often uses less expensive hard disk drives.
Since only Sony and Fujifilm manufacture LTO tape cartridges, shortages could still pose a threat to the medium's future.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
