  High performance computing data is surging fast into the exabyte-scale world,
where tape libraries are the main platform for long-term durable data storage
besides high-cost DNA. Tape libraries are extremely hard to model, but accurate
modeling is critical for system administrators to obtain valid performance
estimates for their designs. This research introduces a discrete--event tape
simulation platform that realistically models tape library behavior in a
networked cloud environment, by incorporating real-world phenomena and effects.
The platform addresses several challenges, including precise estimation of data
access latency, rates of robot exchange, data collocation,
deduplication/compression ratio, and attainment of durability goals through
replication or erasure coding. Using the {proposed} simulator, {one can}
compare the single enterprise configuration with multiple commodity library
configurations, making it a useful tool for system administrators and
reliability engineers. This makes the simulator a valuable tool for system
administrators and reliability engineers, enabling them to acquire practical
and dependable performance estimates for their enduring, cost-efficient cold
data storage architecture designs.
