A method for asynchronously replicating data onto a tape medium is implemented at one or more server computers associated with a distributed storage system and connected to a tape storage system. Upon receiving a first request from a client for storing an object within the tape storage system, a server computer stores the object within a staging sub-system of the distributed storage system and provides a first response to the requesting client. If a predefined condition is met, the server computer transfers objects from the staging sub¬ system to the tape storage system. For each transferred object, the server computer adds a reference to the object to a tape management sub-system, identifies a corresponding parent object associated with the object and its metadata within a parent object management sub¬ system of the distributed storage system, and updates the parent object's metadata to include the object's location within the tape storage system.