When one thinks data storage, it's all about small and powerful and cheap. The image of a cassette tape doesn't come into the picture, especially for those under the age of 30 years old. But apparently at Sony it does.

The struggling electronics manufacturer has built a cassette tape that can support 185 terabytes, which as one report notes, is the same as 11,840 16 gigabytes iPhone5s handsets or 3,700 Blu-ray discs.

The tape cassette will make its official debut at an international magnetics show this week in Germany.

The news comes as enterprises are grappling with tremendous data loads and trying to keep down storage costs at the same time. While the use of private and public clouds is getting greater attention as a solution, many companies are still tethered to the tradition of having data stored on site on tape.

"The expansion of cloud services and the creation of new markets to utilize big data have led to a growing need for a data storage media which can store large amounts of information," Sony said in a statement.

While the cassette likely brings some fond memories for some older generations, it's not a form factor that will likely ever resurface, note reports, as most digital savvy consumers are much greater fans of flash drives that provide as much room as needed for music, photos and documents.