LUCAMEFujifilm is planning to increase its magnetic tape production capacity fivefold, driven almost entirely by demand from AI data centres that need cheap, reliable long-term storage. Tape had been assumed to be a dying medium, but the volumes of data generated by AI training and inference have made it relevant again at massive scale.
What this means for your business
For most UK SMEs this won't change anything day-to-day, but it's a useful reminder that cloud storage costs are tied to physical infrastructure, and that infrastructure is under real pressure. If your business holds large archives — documents, recordings, case files — it's worth asking your IT provider whether your storage costs are likely to rise as hyperscalers compete for capacity. Planning ahead on data retention policies is cheaper than scrambling later.