Tape still isn’t dead, but shipments slipped by 16 exabytes in 2025

Tape is still not dead, but it’s not in rude health either after shipments slipped by 16 exabytes in 2025. That number comes from the LTO Program – the alliance of HPE, IBM, and Quantum Corp, that together tends the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Format that accounts for around 85 percent of all tape sales. The Program delivers an …

[jake]

To get rid of my tape ...

... you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead data centers.

Seriously, nothing beats mag tape for near-term, long-term and off-line storage.

[steviebuk]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

Oddly I used to like changing the tapes at my old place. Especially one site that had a tape robot so you could watch it pop out, scan the barcode, then load the tape. Sadly, before I had a smart phone as the iphone had only just come out.

[phuzz]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

Same here, and I used to use it as an excuse to get a bit of piece and quiet, "sorry, I have to go swap some tapes in the backups server", then go hide in the server room.

If my boss was away (who had the only other key), I could even have a nap in the hot aisle :)

[jake]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

I haven't gone looking, but I'm fairly certain that the toobs of ewe will have any number of tape robot videos. Probably mostly IBM and Memorex promotional stuff.

[Bebu sa Ware]

the toobs of ewe

I misread that as "sheep's tits" but "toobs of ewe" is very nicely satirical given how legions of the ovine spend their lives ogling the antics of the caprine.

[TVU]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

I fully agree and I regard tapes as a safe, long term data storage option. While it might take a bit of time to retrieve data, it really is worth it for crucial data.

Every time tape storage is mentioned, I always think of this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PoXfZdYVU

[PiltdownMan]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

Awesome SHADO/UFO reference and the purple wigs and staring at chics' asses.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: To get rid of my tape ...

You mean the anti-static pelmets.

[Phil O'Sophical]

evolving international trade environment?

Or maybe it's because companies are moving to the cloud and mistakenly thinking that they don't need backups anymore because someone else is doing it for them?

They'll learn, probably the hard way.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

My thoughts exactly however you have to factor in the cost of transferring all your data from the cloud onto the tapes. It's not feasible because if it was people could easily move from one cloud to another.

You're right though, they probably will learn the hard way. It's like putting your safe in someone else’s house and hoping it doesn't burn down.

[jake]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

Most of them already transferred their tape archives to the cloud, but still have the old tapes in storage (usually in situ, just apply power). So all they really need is the most recent data pulled off the cloud. Easier than you might think on first blush. Recommended.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

True but it depends how much recent data you have. If it's a lot the costs can build up pretty quick. It's a lot of work as well. Pulling the recent data is fine but then what are doing with it once you get it? Are you rebuilding the tapes each time? I agree it's definitely recommended though. I have my personal data in the cloud, on my home server and computer, backed up onto a NAS with raid that's only ever switched on for this purpose and written to disc every couple of months. I take no chances. I have over 2 decades of photos and documents (that I'll probably never need till I do need them). Some might call me paranoid about my data but I don't care.

[Judge Mental]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

Only the paranoid survive.

[jake]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

After over half a century in IT, I'm not paranoid.

Yet.

But I'm getting there.

[Roland6]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

> So all they really need is the most recent data pulled off the cloud.

Until you have to recover from a cyber attack like M&S, Co-op and some others suffered.

I wonder how many cloud backup and archive services actually physically offline and move tapes into separate secure storage.

Having tapes in my safe does mean no hacker can get at them without their access being known. Okay it doesn’t stop the ransomware etc getting written to the tapes in the first place, but it’s give greater confidence the tape image hasn’t been tampered with.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

That's assuming they know to do it. I see plenty of cloud users who assume that they don't need to do backups now because their cloud provider will take care of it automatically. They won't find out that they're wrong until they ask for a restore...

[jake]

Re: evolving international trade environment?

I've been making quite a bit of money helping companies pull out of the cloud and bring it all back in-house, partially for cost reasons, and partially for the reason you cite.

Remember, if you keep it in the cloud, you are no longer in charge of your data. The cloud company is. Read the fine print.

[Ochib]

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a car full of tapes hurtling down the road

[jake]

Canonically, that's "Never underestimate the bandwidth capability of a station wagon full of mag tape."

The quote is often attributed to Tanenbaum in 1996, but it was a common expression when I was at DEC long before that ... and I remember a similar comment from a student at Stanford in the early '80s when a professor expressed surprise at one of the vaxen already running the latest BSD build, released just a few hours before. Conversation went "How on earth did you get that code across the network that fast?" answer was "My motorcycle's latency might be sub-par, but it still has a much higher bandwidth capability than your network!".

[TheBadja]

Does anyone remember StorageTek?

In the 1990’s I worked for StorageTek. They almost went broke developing a robotic tape machine that could automate management of petabytes - a big deal at the time. One of StorageTek’s senior engineers told me “Tape will still be cost effective for long term, write once read hardly ever storage for at least 20 years”. And he was right. That the sunset has arrived is not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Does anyone remember StorageTek?

I remember Wangtek

[Roland6]

Re: Does anyone remember StorageTek?

Not totally irrelevant. Did a quick look up and found this interesting article:

Reviving A QIC Tape Backup Solution From 30 Years Ago

Connection: “LTO tape backup solution, a modern type of tape backup which promises minimum 30 years of storage.”

[Roland6]

Re: Does anyone remember StorageTek?

Circa 2003 I worked for a client company who had two Powderhorn’s per datacentre (they had 5 UK datacentres); impressive bit of kit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Majority of servers Breakfix calls

Were for failing tape drives especially the DLT variety with the leaders dropping off. Most of the time the tapes themselves were the root cause but users hardly would accept the media was at fault for causing the leader to drop off in the drive, the drive still needed fixing though. I don't miss them days cause it was always a server shutdown that was involved, though the brave used to swap them live on the SCSI bus (not me as that was very risky).

[Mickey Porkpies]

When all is lost.

and all your data has been wiped by AI induced attacks it will be the ones with cold tape storage that will be the only ones standing. Cloud has a place but the rush to cloud it all will result in opening doors to all of your data. Always keep a copy in the back just in case the sales people really were lying through their teeth ;-)

[jake]

Re: When all is lost.

"Be sure to keep a copy in the back because sales people always lie through their teeth, both by inclination and training."

FTFY

[Uh, Mike]

An Old Saw

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes speeding down the freeway."

[jake]

Re: An Old Saw

We've already done that one, but thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: An Old Saw

Took a while to load it from tape...