Optical tape subsystems will fit well in that storage hierarchy. Optical tape media offers the potential for high aerial density, high transfer rates and an expected long archival life. As an emerging technology, however, the optical tape industry faces many challenges. Magnetic tape, a competing technology, is well established and also promises high performance products with high capacity and high transfer rates. The technological challenges that the optical tape industry faces are feasible to overcome.
Standardization is also a challenge as it has been for other data storage technologies.
Recent industry developments, and standardization issues will be addressed in the following sections. There is only one optical tape drive on the market today. The specified access time is 65 seconds average for one Terabyte. In order to achieve this performance, the project includes the development of optical tape storage technology in which up to 180 tracks can be simultaneously written and read with multiple, independently controllable laser beams. The proposed tape handling methods would move the tape at 2,500 centimeters per second.