Tape Sustainability - White Paper by Overland-Tandberg
The new future of magnetic tape storage
Executive summary
The IT industry is facing multiple challenges, including the strain on data centers due to remote work and
learning, supply chain disruptions, and the surge in energy costs triggered by global conflicts.
Climate change and sustainability are now critical issues, with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) at
the forefront of corporate concerns globally. This is especially true in the IT industry, which generates enormous
amounts of data due to the emergence of cloud computing, AI/ML, big data, and 5G networks. Analysts predict
that data storage may reach 17 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025, with most of this information residing on disk or tape
storage systems. By migrating less frequently accessed data (cold data) from hard disk drive (HDD) to modern
tape storage, organizations can reduce their carbon footprint, improve sustainability, and cut expenses. An
evaluation of disk-resident data to identify "cold data" is the first step in this process, followed by a project to
migrate it to tape storage.
Introduction
Environmental sustainability is rising on CEO agendas, and 9% of CEOs put it among their top 3 business
priorities. Nearly 70% of surveyed CEOs plan to invest in new sustainable products and in making existing
products more sustainable. 74% of supply chain leaders expect circular economy (sustainability) activities
to positively impact profitability between now and 2025.
Reducing carbon emissions is a significant global challenge, with organizations incorporating carbon reductions
into their strategies and announcing green initiatives. Meanwhile, data centers consume as much as one percent
of the world's electric power. Data storage represents a significant portion of total energy usage, with disk
systems serving as the primary driver of energy consumption. To reduce their carbon footprint, companies
must focus on reducing energy use per unit of computing power, mitigating environmental impact, and fighting
against global warming.
Switching data from HDD to SSD does improve performance efficiency, but will still generate more CO2
e per TB
per year. IT organizations can achieve meaningful carbon emissions reductions while lowering operational and
capital expenses with tape storage.
Ever growing
Data
As society becomes more conscious of climate change, the exponential expansion
of digital information has led to a growing concern for the environmental impact of
digital storage. It is estimated that the amount of corporate data would grow to 7.5 ZB
by 2025, doubling every two to three years through 2025. This growth is attributed
to a wide range of factors including video, medical imaging, video surveillance,
logistics data, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, analytics, scientific
research, expanding internet usage, and 5G networks, among others. Over time,
a substantial portion of this data becomes infrequently accessed, with up to 60%
remaining untouched after 30 days.
Up to 80% of data stored by organizations is cold, which means it's not
required to support day-to-day operations. Storing a single Zettabyte of
data would require 62.5 million 16 TB hard drives. Consequently, tape
storage is an ideal fit for this type of data with the benefit of a lower carbon
footprint and lower TCO compared to HDD systems.
Why move cold data to modern tape storage?
Interestingly, storing cold data on tape storage can significantly contribute to reducing an enterprise's carbon
footprint and impact on the environment. Unlike hard disk drives, tape storage does not require frequent
replacement and has a longer lifespan, resulting in a substantial reduction in electronic waste.
Carbon Emission of Tape Storage
1. LTO FULL HIGH TAPE DRIVES – Lifecycle of around 7 yrs, 1.4 metric tons of CO2 e emissions, majority of
that energy being operational energy.
2. LTO HALF HIGH TAPE DRIVES - Lifecycle of around 6 yrs, 0.9 metric tons of CO2
e emissions, computed at
80%
3. STACKABLE LIBRARY MODULE, 40 media slots, 3U - Lifecycle of around 8.4 yrs, total impact of global
warming, 12.1 metric tons of CO2 e emissions, majority coming from operational energy.
4. STACKABLE EXPANSION MODULE, Adds up to 3 tape drives and 40 media slots - Lifecycle of around
8.4 yrs, 0.7 metric tons of CO 2
e emissions.
LTO tape cartridge and media are built with 99% recyclable materials. Disposing them correctly can help
companies Lower carbon footprint, Minimize e-waste, get Net Carbon Offset credit and Secure data and
overall create a sustainable circular economy. Adopting Overland Tandberg's NEOseries LTO technology can
help address these concerns by reducing carbon footprint, enhancing
sustainability, and reduce expenses.
Apart from the environmental benefits, storing cold data on tape storage
also has financial advantages.
Simply incorporating modern automated tape systems in an active archive environment can reduce energy consumption by 87% and
CO2e by 97% compared to equivalent HDD capacity." Rich Gadomski, Tape Evangelist, FUJIFILM Recording Media, USA Inc.
Reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are accompanied by equally impressive cost reductions
in power consumption. However, cost savings are not limited to power usage alone. In fact, the total cost of
ownership (TCO) for tape storage over a ten-year period is considerably lower. Calculate TCO for data storage
solution using the comprehensive cost comparison tool, LTO TCO calculator, it takes into account factors such as
acquisition, maintenance, software licenses, extended warranties, administration, connectivity, floor space, and
power expenses.
Potential Worldwide Effect
The potential benefits of sustainable and cost-effective
practices for a single company are significant. However,
if organizations worldwide assess their operations and
migrate cold data to modern tape storage, the impact
could be monumental. The IDC Global DataSphere report
estimates, 62% of the 8.3 ZB of data stored globally in 2021
was residing on HDDs. By migrating 60% of this data to
tape, CO2 e emissions could be reduced by 72 million tons,
resulting in a savings of 57%.
LTO Tape Highlights
The LTO program has gained significant momentum over the past decade through robust technological
advancements. Its role in traditional backup, active archive, and disaster recovery applications remains critical, and
it has successfully adapted to address new large-scale storage demands. Consequently, the advantages of tape
storage are consistently broadening into new domains.
• Tape has the lowest carbon footprint compared to other archive solutions.
• TCO for tape low and is less expensive to acquire, on a per-TB basis, than HDDs.
• Tape's 10-year LTO roadmap is well-defined with virtually limitless potential.
• Scaling up capacity is easily achieved by adding cartridges, while HDDs require additional drives
• Tape's superior ROI and longevity make it a sound investment.
• Intelligent tape libraries with exabyte capacities, object storage and LTFS support for faster access make it an
attractive option for large-scale archival and cloud deployments.
• Tape's air gap provides valuable protection against direct cybercrime attacks.
• While disk arrays are energy hogs, tape storage offers a way to greatly reduce power and cooling
requirements. Unlike disks, tape cartridges sit idle in automated libraries, consuming no energy until the time
they are accessed.
• LTO Tape is compact: Once you scale to hundreds of TBs, disk storage loses feasibility. It eats up far more floor
space than tape storage.
The fear of a ransomware attack is on the mind of most storage
managers. Nearly 80% surveyed said they have been attacked.
It is not a matter of if but more a matter of when a cyberattack
will occur. Be ready. Use LTO air gap technology to separate your
critical data from the system so that it is out of reach of cyber-
criminals.
Conclusion
Global warming continues to be a pressing issue, prompting governments to impose stricter regulations and
consumers to favour environmentally friendly policies. To address sustainability, in response, organizations of
all sizes are implementing methods to manage the impact of their products on the environment and improve
sustainability. For enterprises with a significant amount of stored data, moving cold data from disk to tape storage
is an ideal sustainability program that will significantly reduce carbon footprint and e-waste, minimize a product’s
impact on the environment, reduce expenses, and can be easily implemented.
Besides lowering data center energy usage and costs, modern tape provides other substantial benefits for inactive
data, including high capacity, 30-year media life and the highest reliability rating of any storage medium. Also, since
tape media can be easily removed from the network and stored off-line, it can be protected from malware via “air
gap" protection.
Given the confluence of events and focus on global warming, clearly, now is an excellent time to evaluate IT data
storage strategies and move infrequently accessed data to modern tape storage.
Contact your BackupWorks Account Rep today at
866 801 2944 and ask about LTO Tape