News Tape shipments increased to 152.9 exabytes in 2023 — not bad for a ’dead’ storage medium

[Admin]

Thanks in part to the storage needs of AI developers, digital tape storage rose to an all-time high in 2023 despite being considered obsolete by many.

Tape shipments increased to 152.9 exabytes in 2023 — not bad for a ’dead’ storage medium : Read more

 

[Evildead_666]

I managed to swag an LTO5 drive a few years ago, and use it for backups of my nas.
Cheap long term storage for 1.5TB per tape.
I wish magneto optical had stayed around though.
Just as durable, if not better than tape.

 

[bit_user]

I wonder how much of this is really due to the speed bump HDDs have seemed to hit in their capacity ramp. It seemed like CRM had run out of steam, SMR isn't a well you can keep going back to, and the EAMR transition has been beset with problems and delays.

 

[bit_user]

I wish magneto optical had stayed around though.
Just as durable, if not better than tape.

What about rewritable optical? For short-term backups, those would seem to be an attractive option. Sure, it has the same capacity problems as write-once optical disc formats, but at least you're not generating landfill waste as quickly.

 

[edzieba]

Whilst EB shipped has remained flat over the last 3 years, LTO-9 released in that timeframe so number of tapes shipped would have decreased (and even without LTO-9, tailoff in legacy tape shipments would also impact unit volumes shipped for same overall bits shipped).

What about rewritable optical? For short-term backups, those would seem to be an attractive option. Sure, it has the same capacity problems as write-once optical disc formats, but at least you're not generating landfill waste as quickly.

Sony's Optical Disc Archive was exactly this, though they discontinued the lineup last year (discpacks are still available though). The system was based on cartridges contain multiple double-sided quad-layer BD discs, for up to 5.5TB per cartridge.