Tape Storage Might Be Computing's Climate Savior
IEEE Spectrum, Saturday, September 16,2023
Data storage has long contributed a significant portion of the computing industry's carbon footprint, even representing as much as 1.8 percent of the United States' total electricity consumption in 2014, according to a report by the Berkeley National Laboratory.
Brad Johns, a veteran of IBM's data-storage business and a data-storage consultant in Arizona, believes that the solution to data-storage sustainability, for the foreseeable future at least, lies in a piece of technology many might consider already outdated: the magnetic data tape.
'There's an opportunity that many organizations have to reduce their carbon footprint and do it in a way that could reduce their costs.. That's kind of a win-win,' says Johns.