Tape storage product shipments to grow 40% in 2021

With the generation of massive data, the market’s demand for storage is increasing, and tape, as one of the storage media, is also developing. According to TomsHardware, shipments of tape storage products will increase by 40% in 2021, reaching a total of 148 Exabytes (155 million terabytes) of storage space, according to data from vendors such as IBM, HPE, and Quantum.

Fujifilm launched the latest LTO Ultrium 9 series tape last year, which is the ninth generation of open linear tape, provides 18TB of native data or 45TB of compressed data by applying new patented technology, a 50% increase over LTO Ultrium 8 series tapes. In addition, Fujifilm’s unique NANOCUBIC technology provides a high-speed transfer speed of 1000 MB/s (400MB/s when uncompressed), which is a further improvement compared to the previous generation’s 750 MB/s (360MB/s when uncompressed).
“Despite the significant business disruptions and uncertainty in 2021, LTO tape capacity shipments achieved the largest increase since 2006, surpassing the previous record set in 2019,” said Patrick Osborne, general manager and vice president at HPE storage. “We’re continuing to see organizations return to tape technology, seeking out storage solutions that offer high capacity, reliability, long term data archiving and stronger data protection measures, especially as threats to cybersecurity soar.”