2025 Data Storage and Active Archive Predictions: Part 1

Artificial intelligence will have a huge impact on data storage in 2025. Part one of our Annual Trends blog explores the many ways that active archives can help manage data growth and energy usage driven by AI technology.

AI’s Rising Energy Costs: Why Data Centers Will Be Turning to Tape Storage
As AI continues to reshape industries, the energy demands on data centers are intensifying. AI servers consume up to 14 times more power than traditional systems, raising both operational costs and environmental concerns. In response, the focus must shift to energy-efficient solutions, and magnetic tape—a 70-year-old technology—offers a relevant answer. Modern tape storage is not only highly durable but also incredibly energy-efficient, particularly when compared to disk storage. By offloading cold data to tape in an active archive, data centers can free up energy for AI workloads, maximizing efficiency. As energy becomes a factor potentially limiting the growth of AI, businesses that embrace sustainable practices will gain a competitive edge in 2025 and beyond. – Ted Oade, Director of Product Marketing, Spectra Logic

AI-based Applications Fuel the Rise of Accessible Cold Storage, Enabling the Processing of Data Within Seconds.
The digitalization of our everyday lives has created the need for immutable records and the permanent capture of sensor data of all kinds of applications such as autonomous cars, medical diagnostics, Smart IoT, images, and videos.  Most of this cold-born data is often retained indefinitely for personal or liability reasons or later monetization, including browsing user data, medical risk assessment, and training data to enhance AI. This data must be stored as cost-effectively as possible; otherwise, newly invested AI-based business models will struggle to turn a profit. In the future, large chunks of data will quickly be heated up to enable ML and AI-powered tools to generate insights on large datasets. The need for fast, accessible, high-performance Active Archive solutions is obvious and will drive accelerating demand in 2025! – Matin Kunze, CMO and Co-Founder, Cerabyte

Revolutionizing Data Management: AI-Driven Solutions for Smart Storage and Seamless Access.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize data storage and active archives by enhancing efficiency and accessibility. As data volumes soar, we can optimize storage management by predicting usage patterns and minimizing costs, potentially making decisions about how and where to store data at the point of creation. In the realm of active archives, AI can analyze and prioritize data, ensuring frequently accessed information is readily available while less critical data is stored cost-effectively. Automated classification, tagging, and indexing could simplify the search process, allowing for intelligent data handling. For example, sensitive intellectual property could be air-gapped to tape for security, while short-term, frequently accessed data could be stored in a cloud tier. This strategic approach could lead to significant improvements in data management, enabling organizations to respond more effectively to their needs and streamline their operations. – Paul Luppino, Director, Global Digital Solutions, Iron Mountain

AI Workloads Will Fuel More Storage Disaggregation
As the AI train keeps moving full-steam ahead, more companies will realize that server-bound storage will be less cost effective and at times inadequate when compared to what can be accomplished via disaggregated storage. Simply put, disaggregated storage is external storage, attached to the server via SAS or fabric. This disaggregation has been proven to deliver the performance and capacity required to meet the requirements of demanding GPU-related workloads which are at the heart of AI and machine learning processes. Disaggregating storage from the server accomplishes two key things: (1) it enables storage to be shared across multiple servers offering greater flexibility and utilization of storage resources, and (2) demonstrations show that disaggregated storage delivers the performance needed to keep GPU processing fully saturated. Over time these external storage architectures will become standard with HDD for active archives and with flash for performance workloads and will ultimately migrate to fabric as opposed to SAS given the convenience and distance benefits of fabrics. – Mark Pastor, Platform Product Management, Western Digital