[Extreme Tech] Sony has developed 185TB tapes, yes, those tapes

[TopWargamer]

http://mobile.extremetech.com/#/latest/221324-sony-develops-tech-for-185tb-tapes-3700-times-more-storage-than-a-blu-ray-disc

Back in 2010, the standing record for how much data magnetic tape could store was 29.5GB per square inch. To compare, a standard dual-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25GB per layer — this is why big budget, current-gen video games can clock in at around 40 or 50GB. That, however, is an entire disc, whereas magnetic tape could store more than half of that capacity in one little square inch. Sony has announced that it has developed a new magnetic tape material that demolishes the previous 29.5GB record, and can hold a whopping 148GB per square inch, making it the new record holder of storage density for the medium. If spooled into a cartridge, each tape could have a mind-boggling 185TB of storage. Again, to compare, that’s 3,700 dual-layer 50GB Blu-rays (a stack that would be 4.4 meters or 14.3 feet high, incidentally). In fact, one of these tapes would hold five more terabytes than a $9,305 hard drive storage array.

So 148GB per SQUARE INCH, wow, that is quite impressive...but this is...tape. Tape isn't necessarily used anymore for the most part...I mean, sure this technology is cool and all, but just...why?

[Rorgash]

easy, so that the different goverments can spy and record EVERYTHING we do EVER on ANYTHING.

[brownninja97]

told you guys tape would make a massive come back, no one listened, now there is this shit. its awesome

[Vitalius]

 but just...why?

Backups. Long term, archival backups. 

[flibberdipper]

Holy balls.

 

I would be pissed if someone were to write over all of my porn on one of these.

[brownninja97]

http://mobile.extremetech.com/#/latest/221324-sony-develops-tech-for-185tb-tapes-3700-times-more-storage-than-a-blu-ray-disc

So 148GB per SQUARE INCH, wow, that is quite impressive...but this is...tape. Tape isn't necessarily used anymore for the most part...I mean, sure this technology is cool and all, but just...why?

think of tape as something that never got a die shink, platters cant get bigger or smaller but tape can, more surface area to put stuff= profit.

[One Who Craves Souls]

Backups. Long term, archival backups. 

That could be a good guess.

[alepodj]

give me a Walkman with one of those please?!

[One Who Craves Souls]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why Sony is struggling. 

For breaking records? okey then.

[One Who Craves Souls]

...with ancient technology. It's like strapping a rocket on a 1950s car. Might sound impressive, but what are you going to do with it? Bringing tapes for storage back in the digital world is just silly.

It doesn't matter if you find it "silly" or not, the point is none of this is why Sony is struggling. 

[Lord_Kitty]

That could be a good guess.

Its not a guess. What he said is correct.

...with ancient technology. It's like strapping a rocket on a 1950s car. Might sound impressive, but what are you going to do with it? Bringing tapes for storage back in the digital world is just silly.

No it isn't silly, and it is still not ancient tech. For example, if a company has records that dates 10 year back and likely won't be used, they can back it up on a tape and forget about it.

If it is needed one day ('Murican lawsuits and stuff), all of it will be there. The read speed in this case does not matter, nor if it is digital or not.

Edit: Fixed spelling.

[greenroost1445]

...with ancient technology. It's like strapping a rocket on a 1950s car. Might sound impressive, but what are you going to do with it? Bringing tapes for storage back in the digital world is just silly.

Paper is still around... why do we bother with old technology when everyone could use laptops or tablets??? Long term archival storage on these tapes would significantly lower the amount of space data storage takes up. It may not affect consumers directly but it can still have a major impact on we store data in the long run

[RH00D]

Its not a guess. What he said is correct.

No it isn't silly, and it is still not ancient tech. For example, if a company has records that dates 10 year back and likely won't be used, they can back it up on a tape and forget about it.

If it us needed one day ('Murican lawsuits and stuff), all of it will be there. The read speed in this case does not matter, nor if it is digita or not.

Basically what you said. Sony isn't "bringing back" tapes, Tapes never left. They have always been used for long term backup storage, simply because it is the best option.

[asquirrel]

@Fooshi: So...every large company has tape backups. Google and amazon...I'm not so sure. But Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fidelity, Walmart, Target, JCPenny, Autozone, etc. All of these companies have tape backup. Why? Three reasons. Friction (from management and 'the way it was previously done'), cost (even at 5¢ per GB for SATA, the storage arrays you'd need, power and cooling, floor space, etc, make it prohibitively expensive), and regulations (government rules on data retention).

 

Most IT orgs whose heads aren't shoved so far... destage backup data to hard drives as an intermediate step. So...around 6PM at night, assuming 6pm-6am is their slower time for business, the backup jobs kick in and start writing the backup data for that night to spinning disk. There are a few companies that sell solutions for this, Data Domain is the only one I can name off the top of my head. Anyway, you destage the data to disk because it's WAY faster than writing directly to tape and then you write from those disks to tape over the next 23 hours (it shouldn't take 23 hours, but that's your window before the next day's backups start).

 

As for why use tape? Because it is, bar none, the most dense form of digital storage available. It's also cheap. The tape head unit (read/writer) costs $7000-15000, depending on what you are buying, and yes you have a storage array that has 12 or 24 or them, but really, 200K, and another $100-300 per tape, to get something saved that will last you at LEAST 50 years sitting on a shelf? Yes please?

 

Tape *is* innovative. The innovation just isn't as whiz bang as iphones or new multicore CPUs. The innovation is on the magnetic layer, how the heads write the data to the tape itself (the physical layout of bits to maximize density). New amplifier and high-gain antennae designs to read ever-fainter magnetic fields. New materials for making the tape out of that not only allow for tighter magnetic fields, but also weaker ones (the weaker the field, the more closely together you can pack the bits).

 

I understand *why* you think tape is a dinosaur, but you are sadly mistaken. Tape is still very much needed by corporate business. Small mom&pop shops don't need tape because tape becomes cost effective past a certain economy of scale. Once your company has a PB or more of data, tape is generally a *very* attractive backup option from a cost perspective. Possibly even sooner, depending on retention rules for the specific data you are saving.

 

edit: Also, yes, a fair bit of work does go into ensuring that the new tape read/write units can read the previous format or 2 of data, giving you time to migrate your data on older tapes to newer ones, just in case you need that data and the read/write units aren't made anymore.

[xAcid9]

Good, now i don't need to change those damn server tape that often.

[Askew]

I like this, I had no idea tape was used for digital storage.

[Askew]

information deluge

 

Damn, that was a hell of a 2nd post, droppin' dat knowledge.

[Vitalius]

Google and amazon...I'm not so sure. 

Amazon has their Glacier long term storage service which starts at $0.01 per GB per month. And I feel pretty safe in assuming those would be on tape. It starts at $0.12 per GB per month when transferring data back out of it up to 10TB then the price starts going down.

[Silent Static]

Well, if they're reliable, why not?

[kellar]

These would work really good for servers

[zanginator]

These would work really good for servers

 

Precisely, Datacenters heavily rely on automated tape backups just because they are cheap, have large storage and not as fragile as a HDD. Just because we don't use them as consumers (I still do for server archival) doesn't mean that they aren't used anymore. I think this is a ballistic amount of data... but I dread to think of the write speed (I'll give you a hint... slow as balls)

[Steff1993]

We still use tape backups at our datacenter & in any datacenter I've been invited to, doesn't look like that's going to change very quickly either.

[sinthetic]

...with ancient technology. It's like strapping a rocket on a 1950s car. Might sound impressive, but what are you going to do with it? Bringing tapes for storage back in the digital world is just silly.

Bringing tapes back? Lmao they never left the industry, government and large companies use them all the time. My brother did some maintenance on a tape drive just a while back. Was for a bank's data center. The tape held backups for one of the mortgage

 servers... Just because it's not widely seen in the consumer world doesn't mean its not still used elsewhere. Ancient technology or not it is still a great way to store LARGE quantities of data.

[pmarion427]

now I can download the ENTIRE INTERNET!

[xox]

Tapes are still used, get over yourselves and your prejudice against slightly older tech.