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IBM Diamondback Tape Library Announced

by Harold Fritts

IBM is extending its data resilience portfolio by introducing the IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with over 27PB of capacity that can be deployed very quickly. The new solution offers a high-density archival storage system that is physically air-gapped to protect against ransomware and other cyber threats. The IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with increased data density in a smaller footprint, extends the tape’s addressable market to “New Wave” Hyperscalers.

IBM is extending its data resilience portfolio by introducing the IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with over 27PB of capacity that can be deployed very quickly. The new solution offers a high-density archival storage system that is physically air-gapped to protect against ransomware and other cyber threats. The IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with increased data density in a smaller footprint, extends the tape’s addressable market to “New Wave” Hyperscalers.

IBM Diamondback Tape Library

To put the storage density into perspective, one IBM Diamondback tape library can store 1,259,091 average-length 4K movies. That equates to 237 years of nonstop 4K movie watching for serious streaming until 2259. Or, put another way, it can store 3,268,760,416 miles of typed text pages laid end to end, enough to lay end to end to Saturn four times.
Storage for the equivalent of a stack of paper that reaches from the Earth to the moon – repeated 411 times. (98,273,398 miles stacked up)!

IBM Diamondback is for organizations needing to store hundreds of petabytes of data securely. It provides long-term storage with a significantly smaller carbon footprint than flash or disk storage, with a lower total cost of ownership.

IBM has found that data breaches and ransomware attacks are forcing enterprises to turn to tape libraries for data resilience.

There are three main benefits to the IBM Diamondback Tape Library.

  • Sustainability: Unlike spinning disk storage, IBM Diamondback reduces power and cooling requirements, with a 97% lower carbon footprint consuming no energy until accessed. Its long-term endurance allows tape to store data for up to 30 years.
  • Ransomware protection and cyber resiliency: Organizations worldwide are pressured to strengthen their defenses against malware and data breaches. Tape provides physically air-gapped isolation to increase resiliency against threats.
  • Data capacity and storage costs: IBM Tape is approximately one-quarter of the total cost of spinning disk storage and public cloud archival services, creating a significant cost advantage.

According to a recent IBM IBV study, 48 percent of CEOs responding across industries say increasing sustainability is one of the highest priorities for their organization in the next two to three years. However, 51 percent also cite sustainability as the most significant challenge in that timeframe. IBM has said its sustainability strategy is driven by a commitment to advance solutions that address climate change and support the transition to a low-carbon economy. As hyperscale cloud providers focus on reducing the environmental footprint of their facilities through lower power consumption, the IBM Diamondback Tape Library will help manage energy-efficient infrastructures.

In the zettabyte era, IBM Diamondback provides a cost-effective archival storage solution supporting vertical markets such as big data, analytics, cloud storage services, the internet of things, healthcare, and life sciences. In addition to generating vast amounts of high-value unstructured data, much of that data must be stored as archives waiting for future reference benefitting from an active archive implementation leveraging high-capacity, low-cost tape systems.

Bringing the IBM Storage Family Together

IBM recently announced the transition of Red Hat storage to IBM storage, helping deliver a consistent experience from edge-to-core-to-cloud. IBM also recently announced new cyber resilience products, including IBM Spectrum Sentinel for SAP HANA and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Online Services for Salesforce. Combining these products with expanded IBM Spectrum Archive support for direct access to files and directories stored on tape, IBM has demonstrated its innovation and commitment to the storage market.

The IBM Diamondback Tape Library is generally available today. For information on IBM Storage and the new IBM Diamondback Tape Library, visit www.ibm.com/products/diamondback-tape-library.

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