Use of magnetic tapes for storage grew 3% in 2023

Although most recent conversations about storage center on high-density SSDs and HDDs, some methods considered “outdated” continue to be relatively successful. According to Ultrium LOT, magnetic tape shipments increase by 3% in 2023offering enough space to record almost 153 exabytes of data.

The website states that the technology, considered slow and fragile by many people, has also evolved and gained incredible data density. Currently, companies such as Hewlett Packard, IBM and Quantum Corporation use a solution known as LTO Ultrium, capable of generating cartridges with a capacity of up to 18 TB.

Furthermore, they have maximum read speeds of 400 MB/s which, if not the highest in the industry, proves to be quite efficient for the purposes that current magnetic tapes are intended for. The vast majority of them are used by large corporations as a way of archive documents and maintain backups of your infrastructures.

Magnetic tapes survive in the technology industry

While the LTO Ultrium format does not eliminate the fact that magnetic tapes themselves remain fragile, the cartridges used by today’s industry are quite durable. Furthermore, the medium remains attractive due to its very low cost, especially in operations that need to store data on a large scale.

According to Ultrium LOT, uploads of 153 exabytes take into account a 2.5:1 compression standard, which is often used by many companies. This means that, in practice, the amount of magnetic tape shipped to consumers during 2023 was only 60 exabytes — which is impressive for an “outdated” format.

In comparison, the HDD market reached 212 exabytes shipped during the same period, while the SSD market approached the 780 exabyte mark. While new technologies should continue to dominate public interest, older ones still prove valuable — and issues such as costs should ensure that they will remain alive for a long time.

Fonte: PC Gamer