Tapes are a great archival medium, they have a very low cost per gb, and are able to be stored for decades. The only comparable medium is CD and other optical media like Blu-ray.

Hard drives have an expected life span of only around 5 years due to the moving parts, and while flash storage lasts about 10 years.

Word on the street was that it was supposed to be a setup for the Borg

If I’m reading this right, it isn’t even the real numbers they’re working with. It’s their “proprietary data model.”