HPE Q2078AA LTO-8 Ultrium 30TB Re-Writable Tape Cartridge 20-Pack
The HPE Q2078AA is a 20-cartridge pack of LTO-8 Ultrium re-writable tape media rated at 30TB native capacity per cartridge — the practical choice when you need high-density, long-term data retention without the per-unit cost of flash or spinning disk. Each cartridge in this pack delivers 30TB native, which in a typical enterprise tape library translates to petabyte-scale retention across a single rack footprint. Tape remains the lowest cost-per-TB option for cold archive, backup, and compliance retention workloads where restore SLAs tolerate minutes rather than seconds.
Key Features
- 30TB Native Capacity per Cartridge: At 30TB per cartridge, a 20-pack provides 600TB raw native storage — enough to hold full weekly backups for many mid-enterprise environments without changing media. That density directly reduces the physical footprint and labor cost of off-site vaulting.
- LTO-8 Ultrium Format: LTO-8 is a well-established, widely licensed tape format supported by HPE StoreEver libraries and drives from other LTO-licensed manufacturers. Choosing a current-generation format protects your investment — LTO generations typically support read/write compatibility with the prior generation, easing migration from LTO-7 environments.
- Re-Writable Media: These cartridges are re-writable (RW), meaning they can be overwritten across their rated lifecycle — appropriate for backup rotation schemes, test/development archives, and any workload where data is periodically refreshed rather than written once and vaulted permanently. If your compliance posture requires WORM (write-once) media, you'll need the WORM variant instead.
- 20-Cartridge Pack Economy: Purchasing as a 20-cartridge pack lowers per-unit cost versus individual cartridges and simplifies procurement for initial library builds or scheduled media refresh cycles. It also reduces per-order shipping overhead for high-volume tape environments.
- Factory-New Genuine HPE Media: Each cartridge is factory-new and sourced as genuine HPE Ultrium media — important for drive warranty compliance, since many HPE StoreEver drives and library agreements specify use of qualified media to maintain full support coverage.
Integration and Compatibility
The Q2078AA cartridges are designed for use in LTO-8-capable tape drives and libraries. HPE StoreEver LTO-8 Ultrium tape drives are the primary target, but any LTO-licensed LTO-8 drive — including those from other major OEMs — will read and write these cartridges provided they support the LTO-8 generation. Verify your drive or library's supported media list before purchasing if you are running a mixed-vendor environment. For tape backup media planning in larger environments, library slot count and drive throughput determine how many cartridges you need per retention tier — 30TB native per cartridge at LTO-8's rated transfer speeds keeps pace with modern backup windows when paired with a correctly sized library. Review the HPE storage catalog for compatible StoreEver libraries and drives. If your environment is evaluating NAS or object storage as a complement to tape, tape typically handles the lowest-cost cold tier while NAS handles the near-line tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the native storage capacity of each cartridge in the HPE Q2078AA pack?
A: Each cartridge provides 30TB of native (uncompressed) storage capacity. Compressed capacity will vary depending on data compressibility.
Q: How many cartridges are included in the Q2078AA pack?
A: The Q2078AA is a 20-cartridge pack, providing 600TB of total native capacity across the full pack.
Q: Are these cartridges re-writable or WORM?
A: These are re-writable (RW) cartridges. If your application requires write-once, read-many (WORM) media for compliance archiving, you will need a separate WORM variant.
Q: Which tape drives are compatible with the HPE Q2078AA?
A: These are LTO-8 Ultrium format cartridges, compatible with LTO-8-capable tape drives including HPE StoreEver LTO-8 drives. Verify compatibility with your specific drive or library model before purchasing.
Q: Can LTO-9 or LTO-7 drives read these cartridges?
A: LTO-8 cartridges are readable/writable in LTO-8 drives. Cross-generation compatibility (read in LTO-9, read/write in LTO-7) depends on the LTO backward-compatibility specification for those drive generations — consult your drive manufacturer's documentation to confirm.
The Q2078AA is a straightforward procurement decision for environments already running an LTO-8-capable library — 30TB native per cartridge is the defining spec, and at 20 cartridges per pack you're looking at 600TB raw native before even accounting for compression. For most enterprise backup rotations, a single pack covers a full weekly cycle on a mid-size environment without a media swap.
Technical Highlights:
- 30TB Native per Cartridge: At 30TB native, LTO-8 nearly doubles LTO-7's 15TB native capacity per cartridge — that halves your slot consumption in a fixed-capacity library and cuts off-site vaulting costs proportionally.
- Re-Writable Format: RW media supports standard backup rotation (GFS, daily/weekly/monthly sets) without the cost premium of WORM. Each cartridge can be overwritten across its rated lifecycle, keeping total media spend predictable on a per-TB basis.
- 20-Pack Quantity: Bulk pack reduces per-unit cost and simplifies scheduled media refresh procurement — one SKU covers the full rotation set rather than managing individual cartridge orders across a refresh cycle.
Deployment Considerations:
- Confirm your tape drive or library explicitly supports LTO-8 media — LTO-7 drives do not write LTO-8 cartridges, and some older StoreEver libraries may require a firmware update before accepting LTO-8 media.
- These are RW cartridges only — if your compliance framework (FINRA, SEC 17a-4, HIPAA audit trail) mandates immutable WORM media, order the WORM variant of this family, not Q2078AA.
The Q2078AA 20-pack is the right buy for a scheduled media refresh in an existing HPE StoreEver LTO-8 library environment — particularly for enterprises rotating off LTO-7 and looking to double slot-density without adding physical library capacity.
