LTO tape isn't obsolete, but it is a specialist tool, and for most Singapore SMEs it is the wrong one. Tape still does two things better than anything else: it stores very large amounts of rarely touched data at the lowest media cost per terabyte, and a cartridge on a shelf is physically disconnected from the network, so ransomware can't reach it. The industry is still shipping huge volumes. The LTO Program reported a record 176.5 exabytes of compressed capacity shipped in 2024, a 9% dip to 160.3 EB in 2025, and a 57% year-on-year jump in the first quarter of 2026. Going into 2027, LTO-10 is the current generation, at 30 TB or 40 TB native per cartridge. But a tape drive costs thousands of dollars before you store a single file, so tape only pays off once you are keeping somewhere above roughly 150 TB, or when your rules require an offline copy.
How do LTO-9 and LTO-10 compare?
| Item | LTO-9 | LTO-10 (30 TB) | LTO-10 (40 TB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native / compressed capacity | 18 TB / 45 TB | 30 TB / 75 TB | 40 TB / 100 TB |
| Native transfer rate | 400 MB/s | 400 MB/s | 400 MB/s |
| Reads older generations? | Check the drive's datasheet | No — cannot read or write LTO-9 or earlier | No |
| Media price | S$135 HPE cartridge (SourceIT, listed 8 Nov 2026); about US$88–99 US retail | US$275–315 US retail (TechRadar, Jul 2025) | Not yet established |
| Media cost per native TB (CALC) | About S$7.50 (HPE, SourceIT list) | About US$9–10.50 | — |
| Encryption / WORM | AES-256, WORM, LTFS | AES-256, WORM, LTFS | AES-256, WORM, LTFS |
Source: LTO Program LTO-10 specification page (fetched 8 Nov 2026); TechRadar (26 Jul 2025) for LTO-10 media pricing and the unchanged transfer rate; US retail LTO-9 pricing via datacenterdisk.com (8 Nov 2026); SourceIT list prices. CALC: cartridge price ÷ native capacity. US prices exclude sales tax; Singapore prices include 9% GST. Prices change; ask for a current quotation.
Is tape still growing or dying?
Still growing in the places that matter to the industry. The LTO Program's technology partners (HPE, IBM and Quantum) reported 176.5 EB shipped in 2024, a record and up 15.4% on 2023. Shipments fell 9% to 160.3 EB in 2025, which the program still called higher than any year except 2024. In the first quarter of 2026 they rose 57%, which StorageReview and The Register linked to the new 40 TB cartridge and to AI and archive demand.
Two caveats. First, these figures are compressed capacity at the 2.5:1 ratio the LTO Program assumes; at that ratio the 2024 record is about 70.6 EB of native data. TechRadar has criticised the inflated headline numbers for that reason. Second, the buyers are mostly large organisations. Tape volume tells you that archives are growing, not that a 30-person office should buy a drive.
Claims that "the cloud runs on tape" are hard to verify, because cloud providers don't disclose their archive media. The best-documented case is old: in 2011 Google restored lost Gmail accounts from tape, with Ben Treynor noting that restoring from tape "takes longer than transferring your requests to another data center."
Why do companies still choose tape?
- A real air gap. A cartridge removed from the drive is offline. That covers the "1 offline or immutable copy" in the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule without relying on software settings. For why that copy matters, see one wrong click could shut down your business.
- Cheap capacity at scale. On SourceIT's list, LTO-9 media costs about S$7.50 per native TB, against roughly S$71–84 per TB for NAS hard drives.
- No power when idle. A cartridge on a shelf uses nothing. Analyst Tom Coughlin told The Register that tape "consumes less power than any other storage media."
- Long retention. Media, broadcast, research, engineering and regulated records often need data kept for years and touched rarely.
Tape is cheap per terabyte and expensive per drive. The more data you keep, the more that trade works in your favour.
Where does tape break even against hard drives?
The drive is the hurdle. SourceIT lists an HPE StoreEver 1U LTO-9 kit with five cartridges at S$11,695.20 and an external LTO-9 drive at S$18,174 (listed 8 Nov 2026). Each terabyte kept on tape instead of NAS drives saves roughly S$63–76 of media. Dividing the kit price by that saving gives a break-even of about 150–185 TB of retained native data.
That CALC is illustrative. It ignores the NAS chassis (which makes tape look better), backup software that supports tape, cartridge rotation and off-site storage, and the staff time to manage it (which make tape look worse). To put it in office terms: 100 TB fits on about six LTO-9 cartridges, roughly S$810 of media, against about S$7,100 of raw NAS drives before RAID and the enclosure. Below a few tens of terabytes, the drive never pays for itself.
What are the drawbacks of tape?
- Slow restores. Tape is sequential. Finding one file means loading the right cartridge and winding to it, and a full restore of a large set takes hours. The Register described "painfully long restore and retrieval times."
- Generation lock-in. LTO-10 drives cannot read LTO-9 or older tapes. If you move to LTO-10, keep an older drive to read your existing archive or migrate it.
- Discipline. Tape only protects you if cartridges are rotated, labelled, stored off-site and test-restored. A tape that sits in the drive all week is not an air gap.
- Software support. Check that your backup software writes to tape before buying a drive.
What should a smaller business use instead?
For most SMEs with a few terabytes, a NAS for working files plus a second copy off-site gives the same protection with less effort. That second copy can be another NAS at a second location or an immutable cloud backup. We work through the costs in NAS vs cloud storage for Singapore SMEs, and if your data lives in Microsoft 365, read why Microsoft 365 isn't your complete backup strategy. Tape becomes worth a look when retained data reaches the hundreds of terabytes, when retention runs for years, or when an auditor or customer contract requires an offline copy. Retention cuts both ways under the PDPA: the Retention Limitation Obligation means personal data should not be kept longer than needed, so archives still need a deletion policy.
For the generation details, our older guides on LTO-7 vs LTO-8 vs LTO-9 cartridges and LTO-9 still apply.
Buying in Singapore
SourceIT lists HPE StoreEver drives and libraries, including the 1U LTO-9 kit with five cartridges (S$11,695.20), the external LTO-9 drive (S$18,174) and the MSL3040 library with an LTO-9 drive and 20 cartridges (S$17,726.40). LTO-9 media includes the HPE LTO-9 cartridge at S$135 (18 TB native / 45 TB compressed) and the Dell LTO-9 cartridge at S$180 (all listed 8 Nov 2026). See all LTO data cartridges; ask us about LTO-10 drives and media. Prices change; ask for a current quotation. For help sizing tape against your retention needs, use Request for Quotation on the product page, call (65) 6978 3502, email Sales@sourceit.com.sg or use our contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Is LTO tape obsolete in 2027? No. LTO-10 is current, shipments hit a record 176.5 EB (compressed) in 2024 and rose 57% in Q1 2026, but tape suits large, long-term archives rather than everyday backup for small offices.
How much data fits on an LTO-10 tape? 30 TB native (75 TB compressed) or 40 TB native (100 TB compressed), at up to 400 MB/s native, per the LTO Program.
Can an LTO-10 drive read my LTO-9 tapes? No. The LTO Program lists no backward compatibility for LTO-10, so keep an LTO-9 drive or migrate the archive.
Is tape cheaper than hard drives? Per terabyte of media, yes: about S$7.50 per native TB for LTO-9 against S$71–84 for NAS drives on SourceIT's list. The drive cost means tape only wins at large volumes, roughly 150 TB and up in our illustrative CALC.
Does tape protect against ransomware? A cartridge removed from the drive and stored offline can't be encrypted over the network, which is why tape is used as the offline copy in a 3-2-1-1-0 backup plan.
