![]() And a single robotic tape library can contain up to 278 petabytes of data. Today, a modern tape cartridge can hold 15 terabytes. The first commercial digital-tape storage system, IBM’s Model 726, could store about 1.1 megabytes on one reel of tape. Like the hard disk and the transistor, magnetic tape has advanced enormously over the decades. Tape has been around for a long while, yes, but the technology hasn’t been frozen in time. There is even a cadre of people (including me, trained in materials science, engineering, or physics) whose job it is to keep improving tape storage. Indeed, much of the world’s data is still kept on tape, including data for basic science, such as particle physics and radio astronomy, human heritage and national archives, major motion pictures, banking, insurance, oil exploration, and more. So, a quick reality check: Tape has never gone away! Seriously? Tape? The very idea may evoke images of reels rotating fitfully next to a bulky mainframe in an old movie like Desk Set or Dr. And for such things, magnetic tape is the perfect solution. Fortunately, much of this information doesn’t need to be accessed instantly. At the same time, the capacity of modern hard drives, which are used to store most of this, is increasing at less than half that rate. Studies show that the amount of data being recorded is increasing at 30 to 40 percent per year. So companies and institutions of all stripes are holding onto more and more. And financial regulations now require organizations to keep records for much longer periods than they had to in the past. It should come as no surprise that recent advances in big-data analytics and artificial intelligence have created strong incentives for enterprises to amass information about every measurable aspect of their businesses. ![]()
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