Perth-based “tape to cloud” data management organisation Tape Ark has announced a partnership agreement with global data storage giant Seagate Technology plc based in Cupertino, California. The agreement will see Seagate’s Lyve Data Services advanced data management expertise being combined with Tape Ark’s unique data restoration technology, to enable zettabytes of tape-bound data to be rapidly migrated from client’s ageing offsite tapes directly to large public cloud platforms of the customer’s choice to enable access and analysis using AI-driven technologies.

It is estimated over one billion tapes are stored in physical offsite locations with much of this data at risk, not easily accessible, and susceptible to decay, deterioration and even permanent loss.  The Tape Ark and Seagate partnership will allow organisations around the world to restore and preserve this valuable latent data, making it instantly accessible again to enable organisations to mine, explore, analyse and extract value from these massive datasets while also turning a stagnant cost centre into a valuable business asset. 

Paul Steele, senior director of Seagate’s Lyve Data Services said: “The legacy data in the world’s tape archives holds the potential to deliver tremendous value and potentially major breakthroughs in research, understanding, processes and practices in a wide variety of sectors, but only if it’s brought in from the cold.  We believe clients will gain an incalculable advantage by adding years or decades of latent data back into their data sets to be accessible for AI-enabled deep analytics.”

Tape Ark Founder and CEO Guy Holmes commented: “The Tape Ark Team is excited and proud to be partnering with Seagate Technology - a global data storage leader and innovator. This announcement is a significant step in Tape Ark’s roadmap for growth and coincides with the finalisation of our first round of venture capital funding.”

Tape Ark, which has pioneered a groundbreaking software and tape-to-cloud data transfer interface, will expand its operations into Seagate facilities globally, establishing scalable, mass ingest facilities capable of processing tens of thousands of tapes per day – by far the largest facilities of the kind anywhere in the world. These new facilities, in Oklahoma and Amsterdam, will become Tape Ark’s new North American and European operations base.

“With zettabytes of data sitting on ageing, inaccessible tape globally, this partnership will effectively see the largest data recovery project ever undertaken in human history become a reality.  Our vision is to give client data back to the client and make it instantly and economically accessible to them where and when they want it. 

Ingesting these data sets into the cloud puts clients back in control of their data assets and by applying today’s analytics and machine learning tools they can potentially make profound discoveries from their legacy data,” said Holmes.