“Stick them on disk”: Plucky UK firm wants humble hard drives to win data war against tape, optical disks and cloud storage — and it plans to do so by getting rid of RAID and slowing down spinning disks to a full stop

Disk Archive Corporation has announced it can boast more than 350 customers in the broadcast and media industry as it continues on its near-20-year crusade to promote its unique approach to data storage.

The UK-based company, founded in 2008, believes its Alternative to Linear Tape-Open (ALTO) chassis appliance is far superior to conventional archival methods. This system relies on SATA disk drives, which spin for just 50 hours a year, which extends the usable life of the storage media by at least 15 years, according to Blocks and Files.