Is Tape Really Obsolete—Or Are We Just Being Sold a Story?
For the past 20 years, storage vendors, cloud providers, and even some IT executives have repeated the same line: “Tape is dead.” But if that’s true, why do some of the largest, most security-conscious organizations in the world—including global banks, governments, and healthcare systems—still rely heavily on tape storage?
The truth is inconvenient for cloud and disk vendors: tape is not only alive—it’s thriving. And the myth of its death is more about marketing, profit margins, and corporate herd mentality than about actual technology performance.
This blog takes the controversial stance that Corporate America is wrong about tape being dead. We’ll explore this in a Q&A format that cuts through the hype, surfaces the hard data, and forces IT leaders to question whether they’ve been sold a false narrative.
The Cloud’s Dirty Secret — They Use Tape Too
Corporate America loves to say “tape is dead.” But here’s the truth they don’t want you to know:
- Google, AWS, and Microsoft all use tape in their backend cold storage systems.
- Your “cloud archive” often sits on the exact same LTO or 3592 cartridges you’re being told are obsolete.
- The difference? You pay them monthly rent instead of owning the tapes outright.
So when a CIO says “we don’t use tape anymore,” what they really mean is: “We outsourced it and now pay a premium for the same technology.”
Tape didn’t die. It just went undercover—inside the cloud.
Q1: Why do people keep saying tape is dead?
The “tape is dead” mantra didn’t emerge from technical facts—it came from marketing. Around the early 2000s, disk vendors and cloud companies began painting tape as “slow,” “obsolete,” and “unreliable.”
- Profit motive: Disk and cloud subscriptions drive recurring revenue. Tape, on the other hand, is a long-term, low-cost investment. Vendors don’t profit when you buy something once and use it for 30 years.
- Cultural narrative: Tech culture thrives on “new.” Nobody gets excited about a 60-year-old technology, even if it quietly does the job better.
- Hype cycles: CIOs and IT managers get pressured to “modernize” even if “modern” doesn’t mean “better.”
In short: tape was never technically dead. It was financially inconvenient for big vendors.
Q2: But isn’t tape too slow for modern data?
That’s the myth. Today’s LTO-9 cartridges can reach up to 400 MB/s per drive uncompressed (1,000 MB/s with 2.5:1 compression). Compare that with many cloud storage retrieval times, where restoring terabytes of data can take hours—or days—because of network bottlenecks, not tape limitations.
Tape’s strength isn’t random access; it’s sequential streaming. And when you’re dealing with massive backup or archive sets, tape can actually beat the cloud in speed, predictability, and cost.
As the saying goes: “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of tapes.”
Q3: Who still uses tape?
If tape were truly obsolete, the following industries wouldn’t still be buying millions of cartridges every year:
- Banks, Financial Institutions, Energy and Oil Companies
– They must store transaction and compliance data for 7–20 years. Tape is the only affordable way to meet retention laws. - Government Agencies
– From intelligence archives to tax records, governments need long-term, tamper-proof storage. Tape provides an air-gapped, immutable layer against cyber threats. - Healthcare Providers
– With HIPAA requirements, hospitals often store patient imaging and records for decades. Disk and cloud costs add up; tape keeps compliance budgets in check. - Cloud Providers Themselves
– Here’s the dirty secret: even companies like Google, AWS, and Microsoft use tape in their backend archives. They may sell you cloud, but they rely on tape.
Q4: Isn’t the market for tape shrinking?
Wrong again. According to the LTO Program’s 2024 shipment report, tape cartridge shipments jumped to over 170 exabytes (compressed capacity). That’s an 11% year-over-year increase, proving that enterprises aren’t abandoning tape—they’re buying more of it.
This growth is driven by:
- Explosive unstructured data growth (video, IoT, AI datasets).
- Cybersecurity threats, where air-gapped tape offers unique ransomware protection.
- Rising cloud costs, which make long-term tape archives cheaper than AWS Glacier.
If the market were dying, why is demand still climbing?
Q5: Isn’t cloud storage better for security?
Here’s where the narrative gets dangerous. Cloud vendors argue that they’re more secure than on-prem solutions, but tape offers something cloud never can: true physical air gap.
- A ransomware attack can encrypt cloud backups if they’re online.
- A tape cartridge stored offline in a vault cannot be hacked.
- In fact, NIST 800-88 and other compliance frameworks still list tape as a best practice for secure data retention.
Cloud security is only as strong as your vendor’s defenses. With tape, you control your data.
Q6: Isn’t tape environmentally worse than cloud?
This is where Corporate America’s “greenwashing” gets exposed. Many ESG reports claim the cloud is greener, but in reality:
- Tape consumes zero power at rest.
- Disk and cloud servers consume power 24/7, even when idle.
- According to an IBM study, tape’s carbon footprint is 87% lower than disk for long-term archives.
Tape is not just cost-efficient—it’s environmentally superior. If corporations were serious about sustainability, they’d expand tape usage, not bury it.
Q7: If tape is so good, why do CIOs resist it?
Two words: career risk.
CIOs don’t get promoted for sticking with “old” tech. They get rewarded for bold moves into cloud, AI, or hyperconverged storage. The result is a bias: decision-makers choose what looks innovative, not what works best.
The irony? When a ransomware attack wipes out cloud backups or when budgets explode under cloud bills, those same CIOs come crawling back to tape.
Q8: What about innovation—has tape technology stalled?
Not at all. Tape is evolving:
- LTO-10 is coming in 2025, with up to 36 TB per cartridge (compressed).
- Roadmaps already show LTO-14 hitting 1.4 PB per cartridge by the 2030s.
- Write speeds and data integrity verification are improving with each generation.
Tape isn’t stuck in the past—it’s scaling for the data future.
Q9: How does tape compare to cloud in cost?
Let’s do the math:
- Tape TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): ~1/6th the cost of disk or cloud for long-term storage.
- AWS Glacier Deep Archive: ~$1/month per TB, but retrieval fees skyrocket when you actually need your data.
- Tape retrieval: Free if you own the infrastructure.
A 2023 ESG report found that storing 1 PB of data for 10 years cost:
- Tape: ~$280,000
- Cloud: ~$1.3 million
Tape wins on economics—period.
Q10: What risks come with ignoring tape?
Companies that abandon tape face:
- Compliance failures (HIPAA, PCI, SOX, SEC all accept tape as compliant media).
- Ransomware vulnerability (no air gap means higher risk).
- Financial waste (cloud vendors love your monthly payments).
- Future regret when storage budgets balloon.
Tape isn’t just insurance—it’s survival.
Q11: Why does the “tape is dead” narrative persist?
Because it serves those who profit from killing it.
- Cloud vendors sell “infinite scalability” but hide retrieval costs.
- Hardware vendors want you cycling through disks every 5 years, not tapes every 30.
- Consultants push modernization projects that look good on PowerPoints.
Tape threatens these business models. That’s why the myth persists.
Q12: Should businesses rethink tape?
Yes—and fast. Data growth is outpacing budgets, ransomware attacks are escalating, and ESG pressures are mounting. Tape solves all three challenges at once.
The smartest companies aren’t asking “Is tape dead?” They’re asking:
- How much can we save moving archives to tape?
- How do we use tape to build a ransomware-proof backup strategy?
- How do we align tape with ESG reporting?
Corporate America has been wrong before. Remember when they said mainframes were dead? They’re still here too.
Conclusion: The Contrarian Truth About Tape
The idea that tape is dead is not only wrong—it’s dangerous corporate groupthink. It discourages companies from adopting a technology that is:
- Proven (60+ years of continuous use).
- Cost-effective (fraction of cloud TCO).
- Secure (immutable and air-gapped).
- Sustainable (lower power, lower carbon footprint).
The future isn’t tape or cloud—it’s tape and cloud. But one thing is clear: Corporate America is wrong. Tape is alive, well, and critical for 2025 and beyond.
Stop Shredding. Start Reusing.
Every server, tape, and switch you shred could have a second life. Recycling should be last resort, not first step.
