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Another Masterful Gambit: DOGE Moves From Secure, Reliable Tape Archives to Hackable Digital Records

DOGE claimed it saved "$1M per year" by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes to digital storage.
Another Masterful Gambit: DOGE Moves From Secure, Reliable Tape Archives to Hackable Digital Records
Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț / Unsplash

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Monday that the General Services Administration converted 14,000 magnetic to digital records, and claimed the process saved a million dollars a year.

@DOGE on X: The  @USGSA  IT team just saved $1M per year by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records.

The problem is, magnetic tapes are regarded by storage and archivist professionals as being a stable, reliable, and safe medium for long-term data storage. Just because it’s a 70 year old medium doesn’t mean those records needed a massive overhaul to digital, that it will save any money in the long term, or that the new storage method is better.

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