AI-Driven Infrastructure Pressure Makes Tape a Strategic Technology for Media Production and Enterprise Workflows: Quantum Brings "Shockproof Workflows" and Deep Technical Expertise to NAB Show

Quantum Corporation (NASDAQ:QMCO) today highlighted its solutions designed to address AI-driven supply chain and power challenges arising from surging costs, constrained availability, and supply uncertainty for flash and hard disk technologies. Ahead of the 2026 NAB Show, Quantum is introducing "shockproof workflows," architectures intended to mitigate those vulnerabilities with available solutions that enable relief from energy constraints, lower storage costs, and support hardware-level cyber-resilience that traditional flash and hard-drive only solutions can't deliver. These workflows are anchored by the company's Quantum ActiveScale^TMobject storage platform with integrated cold storage and the Quantum Scalar® i7 tape library, built to hyperscaler specifications.

"Shift happens," said Hugues Meyrath, CEO of Quantum. "It's been a time of extraordinary change for media and content producers worldwide – and threats to 'business-as-usual' storage and workflow assumptions are here to stay. Most organizations that depend on flash or hard drive-only solutions are facing the need to urgently review their architectures and ask hard questions: where is my supply chain exposure, how do I contain spiking flash costs, how do I inoculate my workflows against the next disruption? These customers need actionable answers now, and an architecture that's ready for what's next—and we are ready with workflows designed to be shockproof, built by Quantum."

With global semiconductor fabrication capacity oversubscribed through 2028 and new data center power demands at unprecedented levels, the need for AI infrastructure is seriously challenging component availability at affordable prices. The AI infrastructure influence puts even traditional but fundamental workflow and storage decisions in jeopardy. In addition, public cloud customers in search of sovereignty over their workflows, independence from volatile cloud economics, and agency over their data architecture are looking for answers that their teams can manage in their own facilities.

"Storage is unique in the data center because it is the only technology that is both used and consumed," said Marc Staimer, President of Dragon Slayer Consulting. "That means storage demand is always additive, and when you combine that with GenAI's seemingly insatiable appetite for infrastructure, fab manufacturing that simply cannot keep pace, and data centers already running out of power, you get massive shortages in memory, SSDs, and hard drives. Tape is distinguished as a unique storage technology in that it doesn't compete for fab capacity, doesn't consume power at rest, and scales without hitting the same supply chain wall. Organizations that recognize this now will be in a fundamentally stronger position than those waiting for the old economics to return."

In this environment , tape has reemerged as a critical and strategic technology to store even the largest content and preservation archives at reduced cost. LTO-10 cartridges now deliver up to 40 terabytes of native capacity, and tape drives such as those found in Quantum's Scalar tape libraries offer speeds exceeding 400 megabytes per second with AES-256 hardware encryption. Tape systems consume dramatically less power: IEEE research documents a 97 percent reduction in carbon footprint per terabyte compared to hard disk drives. Tape also provides a hardware air gap that no network-connected storage medium can match: a cartridge in a vault is unreachable by ransomware, firmware exploits, or supply-chain attacks.

Quantum is bringing its technical and workflow experts to NAB 2026, from April 19-22, Booth N1726, to work directly with media and entertainment professionals on their most pressing infrastructure questions. Quantum's team will be available to discuss and architect shockproof workflows featuring:

ActiveScale with ActiveScale Cold Storage: the only object storage platform with integrated, single-namespace tape as a seamless cold tier, effectively delivering on-premises cold storage economics without egress fees or cloud lock-in.
Scalar i7 RAPTOR: built to hyperscaler specifications in a highly modular, scalable architecture accessible to organizations of any size. The same tape library engineering trusted by the world's largest data operators, available to mid-market production houses and enterprise data centers alike.
Quantum StorNext®: the file system and storage management platform purpose-built for high-performance workflows, orchestrating data movement across flash, disk, object, and tape tiers so content is always where it needs to be. Warm when you need it, cold when you don't, and cost sensitive to what the access pattern demands.

Quantum's technical experts at NAB will be available to address the full range of workflow challenges facing media production teams, from architecting around the current HDD and flash supply volatility, to designing content lifecycle strategies that eliminate unnecessary cloud spend, to building ransomware-resilient archive tiers that protect content libraries and ensure long-term content preservation at any scale.

To schedule a meeting with Quantum's workflow architects at NAB 2026, visit https://www.quantum.com/nab.

About Quantum

Quantum delivers end-to-end data management solutions designed for the AI era. With over four decades of experience, our data platform has allowed customers to extract the maximum value from their unique, unstructured data. From high-performance ingest that powers AI applications and demanding data-intensive workloads, to massive, durable data lakes to fuel AI models, Quantum delivers the most comprehensive and cost-efficient solutions. Leading organizations in life sciences, government, media and entertainment, research, and industrial technology trust Quantum with their most valuable asset – their data. For more information visit www.quantum.com.

Quantum is listed on Nasdaq (QMCO). Quantum and the Quantum logo are registered trademarks of Quantum Corporation and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

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Quantum Responds to Industry-Wide Supply Chain and Power Disruption Ahead of NAB 2026