Applications

• Backup and Recovery: Tertiary storage is commonly used to store backups of critical data to protect against data loss due to hardware failure or other forms of data corruption.
• Archiving: Tertiary storage can be used to store large amounts of historical data that is not frequently accessed but still needs to be preserved for regulatory, legal, or business reasons.
• Digital Preservation: Tertiary storage is used to store and preserve valuable digital content such as historical documents, audio and video recordings, and photographs.
• Big Data Analytics: Tertiary storage systems can store large amounts of raw data that can be processed and analyzed for insights and decision-making.
• Cloud Storage: Tertiary storage is a component of cloud storage solutions, where data is stored remotely and accessed over the internet.
• Data Warehouses: Tertiary storage is used to store large amounts of structured data for business intelligence and data analysis.
• Data Lakes: Tertiary storage is used to store raw and unstructured data for later processing and analysis.

Data that is not commonly accessed and typically not required for daily use is stored in tertiary storage. Tertiary storage is often slower and less expensive than primary and secondary storage  is frequently used for data archiving and long-term storage. 

Tertiary storage units are widely employed for offsite storage or for the long-term retention of volumes of data that are rarely accessed. Tape libraries, optical jukeboxes, and cloud storage are a few examples of tertiary storage systems. Data is kept on magnetic tapes, which are affordable, and long-lasting, but slower to access than other forms of storage, in tape libraries. In general, optical jukeboxes are faster than tape libraries but have a shorter lifespan since they store data on optical discs like CDs or DVDs. 

Data storage on remote servers that are maintained by a third party and are accessible online is referred to as “cloud storage.” Because it is made for rarely accessed data and does not need to be as quick or dependable as main and secondary storage, tertiary storage is typically less expensive and slower than primary and secondary storage. Data archiving and long-term retention, as well as data backup and recovery, are frequently done using tertiary storage.