The necessity of data backup has been clear since the early days of computing. And the oldest backup method -- tape -- is still a viable option.
In the past decade, tape use declined in favor of the cloud due to its comparable costs, easy scalability and quicker data retrieval. However, data protection teams are revisiting tape-based backup as cyberattacks target online vulnerabilities and strategies evolve from the 3-2-1 backup rule to the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, which adds an offline, verified restore point -- a feature regulators and cyber-insurance providers are pressuring enterprises to adopt.
Tape-based backup makes a comeback
Even the most sophisticated hardware and software will fail. Over the years, many alternative backup methods emerged but most organizations long relied on tape for economical, high-capacity retention, said Kevin Ripa, a senior instructor at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training, certification and research organization.
"It was the backbone of how organizations recorded and stored data at scale," added Chasserae Coyne, a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at the professional governance association ISACA and manager of AI, data and privacy risk at an insurance and fintech firm.
Low-cost disk and public cloud shifted enterprise backup architectures away from tape. Organizations looked at cloud services not just for day-to-day computing and data processing, but also for backup storage, said Harshad Sadashiv Kadam, a member of ISACA's Emerging Trends Working Group and a senior infrastructure security engineer at a technology company.
The use of tape never disappeared and has experienced a recent resurgence. Although the market size for tape storage varies by research firm, the consensus is it's growing. The Business Research Company, for example, valued the storage market size at $6.27 billion in 2025 and predicted that it will grow to $11.18 billion in 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 12.3%.
Why tape is back in the enterprise mix
Two major factors drive the upswing in tape storage for backup.
1. The limits of always-on storage
Risk leaders recognize online storage -- whether accessed through the cloud or on-premises -- has drawbacks, Coyne said. Cyberattacks can corrupt enterprise systems, including the data in those storage systems.
"Some thought that cloud storage for their backups was a good idea, until their cloud storage gets compromised in a ransomware attack," Ripa added.
Ripa said overall cloud costs are sending some organizations back to tape for specific backup and archive needs.
2. Regulators and insurers raise the bar for backups
Coyne pointed to regulations and standards related to data protection that emphasize immutable records and separate backups, features that are enabled by offline retention, which is driving renewed interest in tape. Similarly, cyber insurance carriers increasingly require evidence of offline or immutable backups and may offer more favorable terms with those controls in place.
How tape storage stacks up against SSDs and HDDs
Tape fits neatly into broader data protection and risk frameworks, as well as organizational resilience strategies, because it can be stored offline. Air-gapped protection is critical for organizations because it's disconnected from the network and internet, making it inaccessible to hackers, ransomware and other cyberattacks. When combined with WORM media and controlled processes, tape supports immutability and long-term retention for compliance and archival governance.
Philipp Jung, a senior partner in the digital and analytics practice at consulting firm Kearney, listed tape's advantages versus SSDs and HDDs:
- Higher reliability in cold storage scenarios, with no wear-out or mechanical risk failure.
- Higher durability with a shelf life of 20 to 30-plus years versus disk's three to 10 years.
- More scalability with petabytes and beyond, whereas HDDs have rack, power and cooling restraints, and SSDs get expensive with scale.
- No power consumption when at rest.
- Higher security offline when media are taken off the network, whereas HDD and SSD are accessible online.
- Lower costs per terabyte.
Tape should complement, not replace, other backup methods. Many backup strategies, especially the 3-2-1-1-0 approach, call for data storage on at least two different types of media, with one kept offline for air-gapped protection. Tape is also ideal for long-term archiving.
"Tape is good for archives, compliance and back-ups that are accessed in [an] emergency and where you have time to restore," Jung said.
Mary K. Pratt is an award-winning freelance journalist with a focus on covering enterprise IT and cybersecurity management.