IBM Announces Diamondback Tape Library

Today, IBM announced its latest archival storage solution: IBM Diamondback Tape Library. An extension of IBM’s comprehensive portfolio of data resilience solutions, IBM Diamondback is designed for organizations seeking to store hundreds of petabytes (PB) of data both securely and sustainably. This cost-effective storage solution enhances sustainability with its energy-efficient infrastructure and reduced environmental impact.
 
Tape storage keeps a company’s data disconnected from the rest of its data centers, meaning it cannot be touched by ransomware attacks. IBM Diamondback provides enhanced data resilience and improved sustainability for “both traditional and new wave hyperscalers—global enterprises that aggregate massive customer data sets.”
 
When considering ransomware protection, tape storage isn’t necessarily the first solution that comes to mind. But according to Phil Goodwin, research vice president at IDC, tape storage is experiencing a revival due to increased regulatory and sustainability requirements, an upsurge in data volume and the pressing need for ransomware protection. In fact, seven of the eight top cloud providers and hyperscalers use tape storage libraries to back up their data.
 
The IBM Diamondback Tape Library is designed to protect against the constant threat of ransomware and data breaches in hybrid cloud environments. With a lower total cost of ownership and a significantly smaller carbon footprint, Diamondback saves a substantial amount of energy per year compared to flash or disk storage.
 
IBM Diamondback offers three main benefits:
 

• Data capacity and storage costs: IBM Tape provides a significant cost advantage for storage, being approximately one-quarter of the total cost of public cloud archival services and spinning disk storage.
• Sustainability: IBM Diamondback has a 97% lower carbon footprint than spinning disk storage, greatly reducing power and cooling requirements. Consuming no energy until it is accessed, tape sits idle in automated libraries with long-term storage that allows it to store data for up to 30 years.
• Ransomware protection and cyberresiliency: To increase cyberresiliency, IBM Diamondback Tape provides physically air-gapped isolation that protects against ransomware and other cyberthreats.

Read the full press release here. For more information about IBM Tape Storage, visit here.