Sony makes a tape that can store 185 TB

DRESDEN, Germany, May 5 (UPI) -- Sony unveiled a magnetic tape that can store up to 185 terabytes of data or the equivalent of 3,700 Blu-ray discs on a single cartridge.

Unveiled at the International Magnetics Conference in Dresden, Germany, the tape was developed in partnership with International Business Machines and is capable of holding 148 GB of data per square inch -- five times more than a record set in 2010.

"The rapid recovery of data systems such as databases and data servers following natural disasters, as well as secure management of information has become ever more important, and companies around the world are proceeding to build new data systems," Sony said in a statement.

"In addition, the expansion of cloud services and the creation of new markets to utilize big data have led to a growing need for a data storage media which can store large amounts of information."

Sony utilized and enhanced a technology known as “sputter deposition,” which involves layers of magnetic crystals firing argon ions at a polymer film substrate. The small size of the particles and their uniformity used made it easier to store large amounts of data.

The company said it is working on a more consumer-friendly storage device with Panasonic, which will hold 1TB of data, the equivalent of 250 DVD movies.

While cassette tapes may be outdated, data tapes are still used by businesses to hold large amounts of data for long durations of time. They are cheaper and more energy efficient as compared to using large data centers filled with hard drives. However retrieving data from a tape is slower, as the tape has to be moved to the exact location to access the data.