Tape storage

Cyber resilient, energy-efficient tape storage with air gap and long-term retention at a lower cost than other media

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Overview

Long-term backup

Tape storage is used in system failure for data backup and to archive data for long-term storage. 

The long-term retention of data including the archiving of data, regulatory and legal holds are all critical to the business. Tape helps to lower carbon impact, total cost of ownership (TCO) and energy consumption of long-term data retention.

Features

Feature spotlights

Full range of tape libraries and autoloaders featuring high performance and capacity for entry, midrange and enterprise system environments.

IBM TotalStorage Silo compatible 3592 tape frame library

Tape technology of archiving cold data with long-term retention makes possible to dramatically reduce the cost of storing growing amounts of data.

Data center featuring IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 server racks

Tape combines long product lifecycles with low embedded and operational carbon footprint to support your sustainability initiatives.

Close-up of illuminated server rack

Unparalleled data resilience, with “offline-by-design” physical air gap between your archived data and the outside world. Offering data encryption at rest to ensure data privacy and reduce the risk of data corruption due to virus or sabotage.

Rows of illuminated server racks in a data center, glowing with blue and red lights.
One of the strengths we always point out is that tape is very difficult to hack — it’s sitting there on a shelf, and it’s very difficult to corrupt. There’s still a lot of data living on tape, so we usually recommend a hybrid approach.

Jeff Yanoviak, Senior Solutions Architect at Pellera

Price per GB is still unbeatable in tape solutions. I've worked with tape libraries for 26 years, and I'm still talking to my customers about them.

Nezih Boyacioglu, Technology Solutions Director at ISTANBUL PAZARLAMA A.S

Tape portfolio

Tape for Mainframe

IBM TS7700 server rack
IBM TS7700 Virtual Tape Family
Get mission-critical storage with seamless hybrid cloud integration with cloud-based disaster recovery for tape, data encryption across the 8-cluster grid, smaller footprint.
IBM TS4500 server rack
IBM TS4500 with IBM Enterprise Tape Drive
Learn how to face challenges such as high data volumes, the growth of data centers and the rising cost of storage footprints.
IBM TS1100 Tape Drive
IBM Enterprise Tape Drive
Easy way to leverage high data density, improve security and a cost-effective long-term data retention infrastructure.
Three units of the IBM 3592 Tape Cartridges
IBM 3592 Tape Cartridge
Superior quality tape media, designed to preserve your storage at the lowest possible cost.

Tape for Open Systems

IBM Diamondback server rack
IBM Diamondback Tape Library
Preserve and protect your data with sustainable, cyber-resilient, ultra-high density tape storage. Offers a maximum capacity of 61.9 PB uncompressed with LTO-10. The drive type is LTO FH. Maximum number of drives is 14.
IBM TS4500 server rack
IBM TS4500 Tape Library
Offers a maximum capacity of 926 PB with LTO-10 and 877 PB with TS1170. The drive type are LTO and/or TS1100. Maximum number of drives is 128.
Three units of the IBM TS4300 server rack
IBM TS4300 Tape Library
Offers maximum capacity of 25.6 PB with LTO 10. That drive types are LTO FH and HH. Maximum number of drives is 48.
IBM TS2900 Tape Autoloader
IBM TS2900 Tape Autoloader
It offers a maximum capacity of 162TB with LTO 9. The drive types are LTO HH and SAS. The maximum number of drives is 1.
IBM Stand-Alone Drive
IBM Stand-Alone Drive
The IBM Stand-Alone Drive is a half-height drive with LTO Ultrium 9 technology. It provides up to 45TB per cartridge (with 2.5:1 compression). Designed to help small and medium businesses handle the growing data demands of modern tape use cases like cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and active file archive. It is an excellent choice if you require backup and low-cost, archival storage of data.
IBM LTO Ultrium Tape Data Cartridge
IBM LTO Ultrium Tape Data Cartridges
The IBM LTO Ultrium data cartridges offer long-term data preservation and rapid, reliable access to data. Increasing capacity and performance while enhancing data access that can reduce licensing costs and dependencies. 
IBM 7226 Multimedia Enclosure
IBM 7226 Multimedia Enclosure
Deploy up to four stage devices in a 1U space in a 19-inch rack. Enable the performance and capacity enhancements of half-high Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium, DVD-RAM or removable disk drives.
IBM LTO-10 Tape Drive
IBM LTO Tape Drive
IBM® LTO-10 Tape Drive incorporates the latest generation of Linear Tape-Open (LTO) technology, delivering even higher capacity than the previous generation.

Tape management software

IBM Storage Deep Archive

Network cables and a glacier
Low-cost purpose-built design
Simplified architecture with fast deployment increasing data density and energy savings.
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On-premises cloud archive storage
Secure and durable storage for data archiving and online backup.
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S3 Glacier compatible interface
The solution allows customers to install, configure, manage and service with S3 Glacier protocols.

Tape management software

Tape management software

IBM Storage Archive

Optimize archival costs with physical air gap protection and an intuitive management system. Get direct, graphical access to data stored in IBM tape drives and libraries. IBM Storage Archive makes tape storage as easy as disk storage by incorporating the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) format standard for reading, writing and exchanging metadata.

 

    IBM tape frame rack

    Specifications

    Tape portfolio options

    The IBM Tape portfolio provides an array of choices to best suit the client requirements. From single drive entry levels, to scale up infrastructure. Here is a highlighted review of the options currently available.

     

    Product IBM Storage ArchiveMax Capacity*Max #drives
    TS2290Entry Single Drive Edition18TB 1
    7226EntrySingle Drive Edition18TB 1
    TS2900EntryLibrary Edition162TB 1
    TS4300Mid-range
    Scale capacity
    Library Edition
    Enterprise Edition
    25.6PB48
    Diamondback
    Scale capacityEnterprise Edition61.9PB14
    TS4500Scale capacityEnterprise Edition
    926 PB LTO
    877PB** Enterprise
    128
    Tape for Mainframe    
    TS7700 Tape Attach  100PB Enterprise**16
    LTO*/TS1170  100PB Enterprise**16
    Next steps

    Discover how scalable, secure and energy-efficient tape storage can benefit your organization.