Tape, glass, and molecules – the future of archival storage

Feature The future of archival data storage is tape, more tape, and then possibly glass-based tech, with DNA and other molecular tech still a distant prospect.

The function of archival storage is to keep data for the long term – decades and beyond – reliably and affordably. Currently, the main medium for this is LTO tape and it is slow, has a limited life, and not enough capacity considering the implications of ever-increasing image and video resolution and AI-infused data generation. However, there is as yet no viable tape replacement technology at scale, only possibilities, with optical storage more practical and nearer to productization than DNA or other molecular storage.

Tape limitations

Streaming tape, with the tenth LTO generation (LTO-10) being announced, faces growing inadequacy. Although it is the most popular archival storage choice because it has a far lower cost per terabyte than either hard disk or SSD, a tape's ...