2024
“Magnetic tape is supposed to be dead as a digital storage medium. However, the people and organizations who use it apparently never got that memo. Manufacturers behind the Linear Tape-Open (standard) shipped 152.9 exabytes of magnetic tape capacity (compressed) in 2023. That’s actually 3.14 percent greater capacity than in 2022.”
Tom’s Hardware, May 27, 2024
“With shipped capacity remaining high in 2023, LTO tape technology proves to be a choice solution for mitigating common challenges created by the proliferation of unstructured data due to recent advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).”
HPCWire, May 24, 2024
“‘The latest annual tape capacity shipment media report signifies the continued importance of LTO tape technology in the digital storage hierarchy not only today, but also far into the future as storage needs evolve in complexity and cost,’ said Tom Coughlin, Storage Analyst and President, Coughlin Associates. ‘LTO tape will endure as a critical component of storage architectures across the enterprise, especially as tape technology itself continues to improve to handle even larger volumes of data and more intensive workloads.’”
Datanami, May 23, 2024
“‘LTO tape technology continues to realize annual gains. LTO tape utilization is poised to expand even further as customers increasingly require higher storage capacity and recognize the benefits of the technology,’ said G. Kyle Fitze, Vice President, OEM & Partner Enabled Products, HPE Storage. ‘We remain dedicated to improving and innovating further around LTO tape technology for the fast-evolving needs of organizations now and in the years to come.’”
InsideHPC, May 23, 2024
“Guess what? Tape continues its steady growth, marking a 3.14% growth over 2022 results. And it’s no wonder with the likes of HPE, IBM, and Quantum Corporation as LTO Program Technology Providers.”
StorageReview, May 23, 2024
2022
“The air-gapped nature of tape is providing to be a major advantage when it comes to ransomware attacks. Unlike always-on data replication systems, which can destroy backups by replicating the ransomware malware from the primary system to a secondary system, tapes cannot be so easily corrupted.”
IT Jungle, September, 2022
“Magnetic tape is the most cost-effective storage media with tape media costs at less than a penny a GB (<$0.01/GB). Magnetic tape is widely used for data archiving and is also promoted as enabling an air-gap for off-line data on magnetic tape, which can be important in recovering from various malware.”
Forbes, September, 2022
“Beyond their use as an archival tool, the new LTO tapes — from the current ninth generation up to generation 14 — provide a benefit that HDDs might not: They have the same form factor and will use the same equipment.”
TechTarget, September, 2022
“According to IDC data, the magnetic tape market grew at robust 10.5% in 2021, driven by the needs to defend against ransomware, store large volumes of data at low-cost, as well as data centers pivoting to ‘green’ technologies.”
IDC, September, 2022
“…Tape has its place in the tiered storage hierarchy: be it in cold storage (either for cloud backup or cloud storage), as a data loss protection tool to combat ransomware via air-gapping and as a regulatory compliance mechanism (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA) via its WORM (Write Once, Read Many) feature.”
TechRadar, September, 2022
“Already a threat before the pandemic, ransomware surged in the last two years as attackers took advantage of remote workers’ more vulnerable cybersecurity. Tape cartridges, though, provide an inherent air gap from online attacks, as well as immutability and isolated recovery.”
TechTarget, April, 2022
“It’s been a stellar year for LTO, too. According to an LTO sales report (via Sweclockers), using data from the companies responsible for manufacturing LTO tapes, 148 exabytes of total tape capacity was shipped in 2021. That’s far more than 2020, where 105 exabytes was shipped, or the previous record year of 2019 with 114 exabytes of capacity.”
PC Gamer, April, 2022
“Tapes offer some advantages over their other storage medium counterparts — advantages which compound alongside the total storage footprint. Besides being lower power, they’re easier to maintain, usually provide higher data longevity than other popular storage mediums (such as HDDs and SSDs), consume less resources when scaling is required, and perhaps more importantly, offer increased protection against ransomware attacks due to their cold storage, offline, and offsite usage.”
Tom’s Hardware, April, 2022
“As business and technical leaders around the globe continue to monitor new trends in data storage and management, LTO tape technology addresses the massive data growth of mainly unstructured data, with reduced costs. At the same time, this helps with environmental initiatives and sustainability, while ransomware and malware continue to evolve and emerge in ways that no one can predict, making cybersecurity a top concern for organizations.”
IDM, April, 2022
“The shipped capacity growth in 2021 reflects increased sales of higher capacity tape cartridges in 2021 as well as some increase in unit shipments. Magnetic tape remains the lowest cost storage media and is mostly used for data archiving.“
Forbes, April, 2022
“Despite the significant business disruptions and uncertainty in 2021, LTO tape capacity shipments achieved the largest increase since 2006, surpassing the previous record set in 2019. We’re continuing to see organizations return to tape technology, seeking out storage solutions that offer high capacity, reliability, long term data archiving and stronger data protection measures, especially as threats to cybersecurity soar.”
TechRadar, April, 2022
“Demonstrating itself to be a tool in the fight against cybersecurity, LTO tape technology offers an inherent air-gap, which is essential to denying the physical connectivity criminals need to access, encrypt or delete data. New ransomware trends are also reinforcing the need for organizations to adopt the 3-2-1-1 backup rule, which involves at least 3 copies or versions of data stored on 2 different storage mediums, one of which is off-site and one that is off-line.”
Storage Newsletter, April, 2022
“Magnetic tape is an established, understood, and proven technology that can be an invaluable tool for defeating ransomware. LTO tape is unique in its ability to meet all five best practices for addressing ransomware and giving organizations the best chance of recovery and avoiding the consequences of an attack.”
IDC, January, 2022
“Migrating ‘cold’ data from HDD to tape could reduce CO2 emissions related to data center by 43.7% with a cumulative savings of 664 million metric tons by 2030.”
IDC, January, 2022
“Linear tape-open, or LTO tape is, most likely, every organization’s best bet against ransomware.”
TechRadar, January 25, 2022