Tech

US Government says it will save $1m/year by getting rid of magnetic tape – so is there still a place for tape in 2025?

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  • US GSA has decommissioned 14,000 tapes and an unknown amount of tape drives
  • The data was moved to a new, unknown media platform that appears to have WORM capabilities
  • US GSA claims to save $1M per year (or about $70 per year per tape).

The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) boasting the IT team of the US Gerneral Services Administration (GSA) “just saved $1M per year by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records.”

The comment doesn’t include any context as to what tape technology was used (reel-to-reel or cartridge), how long it took to transfer the data from the tapes and what the new storage technology replacing the tape is.

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