Tape and Archive Storage Service CQ3 ’24 Quarterly Update

Total tape capacity shipments set to rise 12% YoY in 2024

The Tape and Archive Storage Service CQ3 ’24 Quarterly Update and Long-Term Forecast provides a near-final update for 2024 as the year comes to a close. Total expected tape capacity shipments of 77.94EBs will represent a 12% annual rise with LTO increasing 13% and IBM enterprise lifting 2% YoY. The increase in storage demand has followed other storage technologies such as HDD and NAND/SSD which have also experienced cloud and enterprise growth in 2024.

Unlike those other 2 storage types, though, tape managed to better weather the collapse in most storage demand the prior year with total tape capacity shipments holding flat Y-Y in 2023.

This report also provides preliminary analysis of 2024 LTO tape media shipments by LTO generation. As outlined in previous reports, hyperscale companies have largely transitioned to the 18TB native capacity of LTO-9 while on-premises customers largely continue to utilize prior-gen. The tape industry remains concerned that slower generational transitions outside of cloud will combine with slower on-premises capacity growth, stagnating media revenue in those markets.

Due to these concerns, tape media manufacturers implemented pricing increases in the 2nd half of 2024- the impact on end demand from these higher prices remains uncertain but will be closely monitored as the industry enters 2025.

Contact your BackupWorks Account Rep today and ask about LTO-9 Tape for your Archive Environment, Call 866 801 2944.