Is tape still the best choice for storage? What are the options and what are the advantages and disadvantages? For years, the industry has opted for high-end enterprise tape drives such as the IBM TS11XX series and has avoided midrange drives such as LTO because of higher-reliability drives and media and high-cost and high-value data. The current standard tape drive used in the seismic industry, the IBM TS1120 (often incorrectly referred to as 3592), which uses the 500-GB JA tape, dates from 2005 and is no longer available for purchase. (The JA tape was released in 2003.) There are various reasons why more modern drives and tapes have not become standard, and this has led to increased cost and confusion.

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