CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS
IBM
Achieves the World ’ s Highest Areal Recording Density for Magnetic Tape Storage
wasn ’ t fully understood yet . Huge amounts of data generated back then were discarded because people didn ’ t see the value in it . It ’ s a point of view that feels very alien in 2021 , when data has already spent more than two years as the most valuable commodity on the planet . Even with COVID-19 ’ s dubious gift of a year free from in-person conferences , it ’ s hard to go longer than a week without being told that “ data is the new oil .” Like oil , data in its raw state is only as valuable as the finished , post-refinement product . In order to create value from data , it needs to be correctly aggregated and stored in a way that not only doesn ’ t cost more than the information is worth , but also ensures that the data is available for as long as possible .
“ Today , the challenge isn ’ t just the creation of all this data , but the increased need to find somewhere to keep it for as long as possible ,” says Walls . “ With this everincreasing amount of data that is being created , and an increasing need and desire to store it , there really is just one medium that can do it on terms that make any kind of economical sense . That ' s tape .”
Tape is Economical Storing huge amounts of information in the public cloud can be expensive and , depending on what you ’ re doing with that data , more modern storage mediums may not make the most economical sense . “ If you need to access your data quickly for queries , for transactions , for any task where you need your information quickly and often , obviously tape ' s not your medium . That ' s where solid state drives and even disks have a role to play ,” Walls explains . “ But nothing
112 April 2021