Fujifilm and IBM Develop 50 TB Native Tape Storage System, Featuring World's Highest Data Storage Tape Capacity

[TheLostSwede]

FUJIFILM Corporation (President and CEO, Representative Director: Teiichi Goto) and IBM today announced the development of a 50 TB native tape storage system, featuring the world's highest native data tape cartridge capacity. Fujifilm has commenced production of a high-density tape cartridge for use with IBM's newest enterprise tape drive, the TS1170. The sixth-generation IBM 3592 JF tape cartridge incorporates a newly developed technology featuring fine hybrid magnetic particles to enable higher data storage capacity.

Innovations in achieving 50 TB Native Capacity
Fujifilm has succeeded in achieving this innovative cartridge capacity by evolving the technologies developed in previous tape generations. This involved enhancing both the areal recording density (the amount of data that can be recorded per square inch) and the overall recording area (the surface area capable of recording data).

• Nanoparticle Design Technology: Fine hybrid magnetic particles have been newly developed by combining the technologies used in the next-generation Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) magnetic particles and the Barium Ferrite (BaFe) particles that are currently used in high-capacity data storage tapes. Reduction in the size of the magnetic particles and enhancement in their magnetic properties significantly improves the areal recording density.
• High-dispersion technology for magnetic particles prevents the aggregation of individual ultrafine magnetic particles and allows for a more even dispersion of the particles.
• Improved thin layer coating technology achieves a more uniform and smoother tape surface, resulting in improved signal-to-noise ratio.
• A 15% longer tape per data cartridge compared to the previous fifth generation is realized by using a thinner and stronger base film, which is for the support of the magnetic layer.

AI enhanced analytics are helping organizations derive value from exponentially increasing volumes of "big data" and prompting the need for long term, cost-effective, high-capacity data storage. With the TS1170 drive and 3592 JF tape cartridge, data-intensive organizations including growing cloud service providers can take advantage of the increased capacity of 3592 JF for long-term retention and security of these massive data sets.

Kei Nagata, Deputy General Manager of the Industrial Products Division at Fujifilm, says:
"With 50 TB native capacity, 2.5 times the capacity of the previous highest-capacity tape cartridges, Fujifilm believes this breakthrough demonstrates the future potential of tape technology. The IBM 3592 JF tape cartridge is yet another milestone in many years of joint research and development with IBM, and we are honored to be the manufacturer of this product."

Alistair Symon, Vice President of Storage Systems Development at IBM, says:
"The advanced technology in the IBM 3592 JF tape cartridge will enable customers to realize high densities, which facilitates storage cost optimization while maintaining performance and time to data. This is the first tape storage medium with 50 TB native capacity, and it demonstrates tape's viability as an optimal choice for data protection, active archives and long-term retention in scientific data, industrial data collection and cloud service provider environments."

The innovation of the IBM 3592 JF tape cartridge, only available on the new IBM TS1170 Tape Drive, provides the ability to store up to 150 TB of data on a single tape cartridge with a 3:1 compression ratio, enabling clients to achieve ultra-high data storage on the TS1170.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[PapaTaipei]

I'm curious for what kind of storage this is. Is it for long time archiving?

 

[csendesmark]

I'm curious for what kind of storage this is. Is it for long time archiving?

Yes,
Just IBM itself storing loads of data each month, flatbed trucks full with tapes going to these "data bunkers" each month for long term storage.
But you can think of bank's transactional and accounting data, factories' production data and many other things.

When you can order back tapes in case of need, but tape return from those places might take a week or more tho.
Tapes are great because they offer the longest data, and it is also the cheapest. Profit oriented organizations love that!

 

[wNotyarD]

I'm curious for what kind of storage this is. Is it for long time archiving?

Cold backup for old and unfrequently accessed data.

 

[claylomax]

Cold backup for old and unfrequently accessed data.

So basically what I have on my hard drives; as long as it's there I can sleep at night, even if I never check it.

 

[wNotyarD]

So basically what I have on my hard drives; as long as it's there I can sleep at night, even if I never check it.

Taken to extreme levels. HDDs don't hold a candle to the longevity of magtapes, assuming due care is taken.

 

[Jism]

Only if you really need long term storage, tapes is the way to go. But it's slow (tops 400MB per second) and it does'nt exactly work like a harddrive. If you need access to one file, you need to get the whole content off the tape (a tar.gz usually) and then extract the file from it.

 

[Wye]

Taken to extreme levels. HDDs don't hold a candle to the longevity of magtapes, assuming due care is taken.

Magnetic tape longevity is 10-20 years IF kept in the right humidity and temperature conditions, and IF it is not use multiple times. It takes about 60 seconds to seek you data. Automated systems for handling archives of multiple tapes are extremely expensive.
HDD is 5 years and SSD is 10 years, and you can access you data pretty much instantly.

In my opinion they DO hold a candle, it is pretty close in longevity and the seek times are orders of magnitude higher.
I simply don't see a point for magnetic tapes in 2023.

 

[claylomax]

Taken to extreme levels. HDDs don't hold a candle to the longevity of magtapes, assuming due care is taken.

Sorry, I didn't explain myself very well.

 

[AnotherReader]

Magnetic tape longevity is 10-20 years IF kept in the right humidity and temperature conditions, and IF it is not use multiple times. It takes about 60 seconds to seek you data. Automated systems for handling archives of multiple tapes are extremely expensive.
HDD is 5 years and SSD is 10 years, and you can access you data pretty much instantly.

In my opinion they DO hold a candle, it is pretty close in longevity and the seek times are orders of magnitude higher.
I simply don't see a point for magnetic tapes in 2023.

LTO tape lifespan is 30 years or more under the right conditions. Tapes shouldn't be measured by seek latency as that is not what they are meant for. For large organizations that have regular backups for critical systems, tape is the way to go. For individuals, it isn't the right solution. SSD lifetime, when unpowered, isn't 10 years. In fact, the expected data lifespan for unpowered SSDs is 1 year.

 

[Wirko]

LTO tape lifespan is 30 years or more under the right conditions. Tapes shouldn't be measured by seek latency as that is not what they are meant for. For large organizations that have regular backups for critical systems, tape is the way to go. For individuals, it isn't the right solution. SSD lifetime, when unpowered, isn't 10 years. In fact, the expected data lifespan for unpowered SSDs is 1 year.

Also, a defect on a tape, or even a broken tape, means that only a small amount of data is lost, and the rest is easy to recover.

Hm, this isn't LTO, so what is it? Apparently IBM also has had another format called the IBM 3592 since 2003, and is an active developer of both LTO (for peasants) and this thing here (for mainframes).

 

[csendesmark]

Taken to extreme levels. HDDs don't hold a candle to the longevity of magtapes, assuming due care is taken.

This is not about just that...
Magnetic tape costs only the fraction of HDD-s, it is around 25% of the price compared to a HDD based price.

Magnetic tape longevity is 10-20 years IF kept in the right humidity and temperature conditions, and IF it is not use multiple times. It takes about 60 seconds to seek you data. Automated systems for handling archives of multiple tapes are extremely expensive.
HDD is 5 years and SSD is 10 years, and you can access you data pretty much instantly.

In my opinion they DO hold a candle, it is pretty close in longevity and the seek times are orders of magnitude higher.
I simply don't see a point for magnetic tapes in 2023.

LTO boasts an impressive 15 to 30-year lifespan. In comparison, HDDs are more volatile with a higher failure rate and a life expectancy of around 5 years.
You don't get the point of long term archiving.
Also, archiving data on SSD-s are like making Phonograph records on a pure gold disk...
Here is something to read about this:

Why a tech giant is embracing old-school magnetic tape storage

IBM has been innovating magnetic tape storage technologies. The company believes that tape stands out in terms of safety and sustainability.

www.popsci.com

TLDR
It is holding a lot of data for the cheapest ever while keeping your record for the longest time possible
Literally the best scenario for archiving in a world where annually producing ~100 ZB

 

[Octavean]

I wish I had something like this. Naturally I can’t afford it. Although some old LTO drives off of flea-bay my be more palatable pride wise then you have to worry about proprietary software and hardware (tape drive) failures. Plus those old LTO standards just don’t hold as much per-tape,….

 

[csendesmark]

I wish I had something like this. Naturally I can’t afford it. Although some old LTO drives off of flea-bay my be more palatable pride wise then you have to worry about proprietary software and hardware (tape drive) failures. Plus those old LTO standards just don’t hold as much per-tape,….

If it is not a secret, how much data you want to hold?

 

[Dr. Dro]

Magnetic tape longevity is 10-20 years IF kept in the right humidity and temperature conditions, and IF it is not use multiple times. It takes about 60 seconds to seek you data. Automated systems for handling archives of multiple tapes are extremely expensive.
HDD is 5 years and SSD is 10 years, and you can access you data pretty much instantly.

In my opinion they DO hold a candle, it is pretty close in longevity and the seek times are orders of magnitude higher.
I simply don't see a point for magnetic tapes in 2023.

I've got consumer-grade HDDs with data written on them for much longer than 5 years, and it's still all fine. I think all of these numbers can be well multiplied by 3-4x and it'd still be good.

 

[80251]

I used to work in a data center and they had a very expensive automatic tape backup unit w/magazine. It automatically loaded tapes as they filled up and was something to see in action. As someone else here pointed out they archived the tapes out to a separate storage facility.

 

[Octavean]

If it is not a secret, how much data you want to hold?

That is always a moving target since data seems to grow. Some years ago I probably would have said 60TB but now I’d say ~150TB

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Ancient computing proverb:-

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway" - Andrew Tanenbaum (1981)

 

[Octavean]

So yeah it’s somewhat paradoxical in that you can save money buying an LTO5 drive (off of eBay for ~$300-ish) but have to spend ~$1400+ USD on tapes. Or you could spend more on an LTO 6 or better drive and need fewer tapes,…

Given this conundrum I just opted to do nothing.

LTO5 tapes are 1.5TB uncompressed (and probably ~$18 a pop) so good but not quite good enough IMO. If you need ~60 to ~70 tapes for your data set it’s a tough sell.

 

[AnotherReader]

So yeah it’s somewhat paradoxical in that you can save money buying an LTO5 drive (off of eBay for ~$300-ish) but have to spend ~$1400+ USD on tapes. Or you could spend more on an LTO 6 or better drive and need fewer tapes,…

Given this conundrum I just opted to do nothing.

LTO5 tapes are 1.5TB uncompressed (and probably ~$18 a pop) so good but not quite good enough IMO. If you need ~60 to ~70 tapes for your data set it’s a tough sell.

For individuals, the high cost of more recent tape drives makes them a tough sell.

 

[Octavean]

For individuals, the high cost of more recent tape drives makes them a tough sell.

Indeed,….

~$4k or more for a newer standard is a tough sell.

I’ve also heard that the custom software can be expensive too. So overall not too realistic for the average Joe.

The older stuff doesn’t seem all that realistic either because of the lower capacity. You almost might as well be playing with an iOmega Zip or Jazz drive,…….almost.

 

[csendesmark]

That is always a moving target since data seems to grow. Some years ago I probably would have said 60TB but now I’d say ~150TB

Yeah, 150TB might worth using tape for, but it will be a pain if you adding changes into existing files, you will hate it.

 

[Scrizz]

SSD lifetime, when unpowered, isn't 10 years. In fact, the expected data lifespan for unpowered SSDs is 1 year.

This! the data on an unpowered SSD won't last many years. SSDs are the worst storage medium for archival purposes (even worse than CDs).

 

[Wirko]

Yeah, 150TB might worth using tape for, but it will be a pain if you adding changes into existing files, you will hate it.

You never do that. You may, however, add a new recording session with new files, similar to how you do it with CDs.

 

[Octavean]

Yeah, 150TB might worth using tape for, but it will be a pain if you adding changes into existing files, you will hate it.

The data in question is mostly an archive. I don’t replace files much if at all or add to files. Tape is a good option for my use case in theory. LTO8 is just out of my reach. I probably couldn’t do much better then LTO5.

LTO5 might be worth playing around with for sh!ts and g!ggles but probably not for serious use.

Edit:

Although, in the event of catastrophic data loss, it’s probably better to have some percentage of data backed up rather then losing everything.