Although in this high-speed data and internet age, it seems an outdated technology of the past, magnetic tape and magnetic storage devices still have many uses that can benefit businesses and individuals who understand the technology and how to use them.
Introduction to Magnetic Tape
Although you may recognize the common, rather outdated uses of magnetic tape for video cassettes, audio cassettes, and records, there are other, lesser-known uses for magnetic tape. Magnetic tape is used, for instance, for storage in some computers in cases when storing large amounts of data is key. However, because magnetic tape stores data sequentially, it’s a much slower to retrieve data from magnetic tape systems than from hard disk computer systems – they cannot find files randomly, and most go through data sequentially to reach requested information, a disadvantage that has made magnetic tape devices much less popular than other storage devices such as optical drives and hard drives.
Modern Uses
Besides being used in some computers, magnetic tape is also used in a variety of other ways, including in checks, credit cards, and computer backup devices. For instance, although not used to store data that needs to be easily accessible, high bpi magnetic tape (or high density tape that can store a lot of information – hundreds of optical disks worth of information, in fact) can be used to do a periodic daily, weekly, or perhaps continual, backups of an entire computer or group of computers. Tape is handy for backing up systems because it can very quickly write out data, even if its retrieval times are much slower than a hard disk. Another good reason tape-based computers are used for backups is because they last considerably longer than hard drives.
As you can probably guess, magnetic tape backup is too unwieldy and unnecessary for personal use or even small-business startup use, but could be very useful for a larger company or a storage company.
The Future
Magnetic tape technology has improved immensely through the years, and has continued to improve into the 21st Century. Magnetic tape is much denser and can hold much more data than any other technology. According to Colin Johnson in his article “IBM Brightens Future of Magnetic Tape with World Record” storing the information of 4 inches of modern magnetic tape containing 35TB would take 700 Blue-ray disks.
Although clearly optical disks and hard drives which can be accessed randomly will continue to be much more useful for individual small-timer users, magnetic tape seems to have carved out a niche in the more long-term markets of data storage and archives because of it’s high density, cheap cost, and durability. Magnetic tape storage may actually increase in fact, given the huge amounts of data that will continue to amass in this information age.
When considering present uses and the future of magnetic tape, it’s helpful to consider how far technology the technology has come in less than a century — who knows what advances or innovations are in store.
Guest post contributed By: David Rocke
As a writer and computer enthusiast, David Rocke was helping his friends program their computers and protect their documents for years before become the resident blogger for Vanguard Archives of Chicago.
