This IDC study presents the tape drive and tape automation shipment records in Japan from 2003 to 2005 as well as market forecasts for both markets from 2006?2010. All data was analyzed from a revenue and unit shipment perspective by platform type. Tape drive shipments were analyzed by storage capacity while tape automation product shipments were analyzed by number of cartridges. Tape technologies include half-inch cartridges (3480/3490, 3590, 3592, 9840/9940, and Digital Tape Format [DTF]); linear tape open [LTO]; digital linear tape [DLT]/super digital linear tape [SDLT]; 8mm; Advanced Intelligent Tape [AIT]/Super Advanced Intelligent Tape [SAIT]; digital data storage [DDS]/digital audio tape [DAT]; scalable linear recording [SLR]; Travan; DLT-1 (VS80/160); and VXA).

Ayuchi Takamatsu, research analyst, Storage Systems Research, IDC Japan, says, "To reflect recent changes in the social environment, companies in Japan are increasingly focusing their storage investments to enhance security, plan for disaster recovery, and comply to regulations in addition to the conventional aim of improving backup efficiency. It is becoming important for tape storage suppliers to accurately understand changes in users' storage investment approaches and present tape storage to users not only as backup systems but also as important elements for security solutions, disaster recovery, and compliance."