The digital revolution does not hamper old technology from being used as in many area’s devices as fax machines, tape storage devices and record players are still alive. Not to forget Teletext, still popular in countries like Germany and The Netherlands.
Many music fans believe that analogue music sounds better. There is a strong demand for record players and also open reel tape recorders. New hardware is still available and on the rise.
At the office, fax messages are widely seen as more secure compared with email. Lawyers, notary offices and medical professionals still send countless numbers of faxes every day around the globe. I use the fax at least a few times a week. The fax machine of today is in many cases virtual and perfectly integrated in a digital environment.
For security reasons, many large companies store their vital data on tape.
The security matter goes even further than protecting content against violent intrusion. Data stored on tape is also better resistant to EMP shockwaves. In case of an EMP, data storage on traditional drives as hard disks and SSD could be lost.
Worldwide tensions are leveling up and chances of major disruption increase by the day. Just a nuclear explosion in space can wipe out all vital data in an instance.
Data backed up on tape is difficult to disrupt, steal or ransom.
As a result the sale of magnetic storage devices is at an all time high.
LTO (Linear Tape Open) devices, the first ones came out thirty years ago, are popular by an increasing number of companies.
Not as it comes to speed. Compared to modern hard drives and SSD’s, storage on tape is slow.
But when it comes to endurance and resistance against attacks it is the last resort.
Massive amounts of data is now stored on cassette tapes.
The modern cassettes don’t look by far as the pre historic IBM, Sony and Commodore cassettes. A modern cassette drive is one of a kind and can store up to 45 terra bytes.
Not vulnerable for attacks as the data stored on tape is always stored off line and meant to be used as back up only.
Slowness is better than loosing vital data. It might take a while to restore but it’s always worth it.
Tape storage hit the news as a Swedish company specialized in magnetic storage devices reported an over 40 percent sale increase compared to 2019.
The company explained the amazing jump in demand has to do with a sharp increase in ransomware attacks.