Cold Data At FMS And Magnetic Tape Data Recovery

Managing Cold Storage: Emerging Technologies and Solutions

The recent FMS conference highlighted the growing importance of cold storage, with a focus on innovative solutions and technologies. Cold storage refers to the long-term retention of data that is not frequently accessed, but still requires preservation for potential future use. As data centers and enterprises grapple with the exponential growth of data, effective cold storage strategies are becoming increasingly crucial.

Cold Storage Challenges and Opportunities

According to John Monroe from Further Market Research, approximately 70% of data stored in enterprise and data center applications is cold data. However, this data may need to be accessed at any time to support modern AI workflows, emphasizing the need for active archiving solutions. Monroe predicts that magnetic tape and emerging optical archive storage technologies will grow to over 20% of the total shipped storage capacity by 2030, up from around 16% in 2024.

Ilya Kazansky, CEO of SPhotonix, presented the company’s innovative optical storage technology, which utilizes 5D fused quartz-based memory crystals. These crystals offer a write-once, read-many (WORM) media that can persist for over 1,000 years, resistant to damage from heat, humidity, and other environmental factors. This technology has the potential to revolutionize cold storage by eliminating the need for frequent data migration and providing a highly durable and sustainable solution.

Alternative Cold Storage Solutions

Steffen Hellmold, President of Cerabyte, discussed the company’s optical media technology for archiving applications, which also boasts long-lasting and durable storage capabilities. Hellmold emphasized the importance of transitioning from traditional archiving approaches to active archiving to support the data needs of modern AI workflows. Other startups, such as Folio Photonics and Optera, are also developing higher-capacity circular optical media for archival purposes.

David Landsman, Distinguished Engineer and Director of Industry Standards at Western Digital, presented a case for the continued relevance of hard disk drives (HDDs) in cold storage applications. Landsman argued that HDDs are well-suited for “cool” data, which is less frequently accessed than hot data but still requires relatively fast access times. Western Digital projects that HDD storage capacities will continue to increase, with 36-44TB drives expected in 2026 and over 100TB drives anticipated in the years following.

Magnetic Tape and Legacy Data Recovery

Alistair Symons, VP of Storage Systems Development at IBM, advocated for the use of magnetic tape in archive storage, citing its significant energy consumption advantages over SSDs and HDDs. Meanwhile, Chuck Sobey of Channel Science is developing a multi-format, minimal-contact legacy tape reader to recover data from old magnetic tapes. This innovation has the potential to unlock valuable data for AI training and other applications, including cultural, seismic, climate, and astronomy data, which could lead to more accurate and informative models.

The Channel Science tape reader uses GMR sensors and advanced signal processing to read data from legacy tapes, with a gentle tape path and high-speed transport. This technology has been developed using SBIR grants and is designed to optimize its operation for different types of tape using AI. As the demand for cold storage continues to grow, innovative solutions like these will play a critical role in helping enterprises and data centers manage their data effectively and efficiently.