Recently, I had the privilege of attending IBM’s “Future of Tape” summit in Tucson—a two-day event packed with valuable insights and future-focused developments in data storage, specifically tape technology. As CEO of Geyser Data Inc., which specializes in cloud archive solutions using tape, this summit underscored our mission and reinforced how tape remains central to sustainable, scalable storage in an increasingly data-driven world. Here’s a deep dive into my takeaways and why I believe tape is primed for a significant renaissance.
Tape’s Growing Relevance Amidst Exponential Data Growth
One key highlight from the summit was IBM’s projection that tape capacity demand will continue rising, with an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 29% through 2030. This growth is driven by an explosion of data, expected to exceed zettabyte levels by the decade’s end. Notably, much of this “cold” data is still stored on HDDs, which are reaching their scaling limits in terms of maximum drive size due to the superparamagnetic limit. This stagnation in areal density for HDDs, combined with tape’s potential for exponential capacity growth, positions tape as the ideal solution for sustainable, long-term data storage.
IBM’s advancements in tape technology, such as their demonstration of a 317 Gb/in² areal recording density, reveal a roadmap that could enable single cartridges to hold as much as 580 terabytes. This is a game-changer. Compared to the slowing advancements in HDD, which now rely on expensive heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), tape continues to scale more affordably and sustainably. One interesting fact, is that in the almost 1Km of tape inside the LTO9 cartridge, there is 100 times more area than in a 11 platters HDD drive. This will allows the Tape cartridge capacity to keep increasing for the next 10 years.
Tape’s Sustainability Edge
IBM’s summit emphasized sustainability, an increasingly crucial factor for data centers coping with growing energy demands—particularly with AI workloads. Tape storage consumes up to 93% less power than HDD storage, a remarkable advantage as energy consumption concerns rise in data centers. Additionally, tape’s infrastructure is 99% recyclable, with the tape drives, media, and libraries designed for longevity (8 to 16 years). These sustainability metrics align with Geyser Data’s focus on providing an eco-friendly archive solution, underscoring why tape is essential for reducing the environmental impact of large-scale data storage.
The Role of Tape in AI and Gen AI Workloads
As AI and machine learning models grow in scale and sophistication, they require vast amounts of data storage, often in petabyte-scale, for training and inference. Tape is emerging as a key enabler here, thanks to its capacity for handling sequential data access efficiently. IBM’s summit showcased how tape fits seamlessly into AI workflows, storing training data, checkpoints, and model information in a tiered storage architecture. Notably, tape can support the “infinite cache” concept, reducing egress costs and enabling data tiering, due to the fact that the AI training is a predictable workload, it is very easy to predict which files will be used when and thus move those files from Tape to Flash beforehand. This is crucial for AI models where compliance mandates long-term storage of massive datasets.
With content-aware storage technologies on the horizon, tape will soon be able to support ad hoc natural language queries, making it possible to create AI-ready storage solutions that are both economical and regulatory-compliant.
Innovative IBM Solutions Reinforce Tape’s Potential
IBM introduced several groundbreaking innovations at the summit, including the IBM Diamondback Library, which can hold over 1500 tapes in a single rack with minimal maintenance. This high-density storage library requires no expertise to install or service, with videos for easy part replacement and plans for remote visibility. The Tape Library has only 6 Field Replaceable Units, each one of them can be replaced in less than 2 minutes without the need of any tools nor expertise.
Other exciting developments included:
• IBM TS7700V: A forthcoming solution for open systems that will support Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI connectivity plus writing data in S3 Glacier format to an external S3 based Tape Storage.
• LTO-10 and LTO-11 Roadmap: Set for release in 2025 and 2028, respectively, with LTO-10 offering 30TB capacity and LTO-11 expected to double that. These advancements will double tape capacity every 2.5 years. These new versions of LTO will have a “tilt head TDS” that is more efficient than the “tension control TDS”, and avoid the need for calibration.
• S3-enabled Tape Interface: IBM is developing an S3-enabled tape interface, expected to facilitate multi-region storage with transparent data tiering between tape and other storage types.
• IBM Storage Protect (ex TSM) provides interfaces compatible with S3 Glacier and other cloud storage APIs. At any time a customer can create a full backup from the incremental snapshots and send it to a Cloud Archive solution as Geyser Data via S3 Glacier APIs.
Looking Ahead: The “Tape Renaissance”
IBM’s commitment to enhancing tape technology signals a new era for this “legacy” technology—one that I believe aligns with Geyser Data’s own mission. The summit made it clear that we’re entering a “tape renaissance,” where the unique properties of tape, from scalability to sustainability, position it as an essential tool for the future of data storage. With continued innovation, tape’s role will only expand, powering next-gen applications while keeping our planet’s sustainability goals in focus. It is clear that the Future of Tape is to be accessible via S3 Glacier APIs rather than the traditional Fibre Channel and SAS protocols.
For Geyser Data, the summit’s insights were both validating and inspiring. As we continue our journey to bring cloud archive solutions to businesses, these advancements reaffirm our strategy. Tape is more than just a storage medium; it’s a pathway to a future where data storage is vast, economical, and environmentally responsible.