Tape Data Storage: Market Overview

Tape continues to be a popular choice in the enterprise data storage market.

It's true, tape storage doesn't get the level of attention that, say, flash storage does. And while the cloud and software-defined storage boast hundreds of startups, the tape market’s maturity can work against it.

Products are generally up to their umpteenth version and new products typically follow the development path of the latest Linear Tape-Open (LTO) release. When LTO-6 came out at the end of last year, all tape vendors updated their gear accordingly.

As nearly a year has gone by, it’s time to give tape some more coverage.

Tape Market Rebound

Deduplication vendor Data Domain essentially held a funeral for tape about five or six years back with its “Tape Sucks” campaign. The rumors of that demise were certainly premature. According to IDC analyst Robert Amatruda, tape capacity shipments exceeded 20,000 PB and grew 13% in 2012 and that growth is projected to double in 2013.

To continue reading, go to Enterprise Storage Forum