IBM introduced a new high-density archive storage system. Its cassette cabinet displays… 27 petabytes of storage (1 peta: 1,000 tera). Even if access is slower than for conventional hard disks, durability is longer (30 years) and power consumption is lower.
Invented for audio recording in 1928, magnetic tape was later used by businesses to back up their data. The appearance of other more efficient media in terms of speed, such as the SSD, has put a brake on its deployment.
But the strong growth in data volume is forcing companies and data hosts to review their copies. As a result, magnetic tape is back in fashion for mass storage. And this comeback is due in particular to the marketing by IBM, since the end of 2022, of 18 terabyte cassettes (regarding 18 times more than a conventional hard drive).
The computer giant offers an electronic cabinet. Called Diamondback Tape Library, it integrates several of these cassettes to reach 27 petabytes of storage (1 peta: 1,000 tera). According to IBM, operational deployment of more than 27 PB of data takes only 30 minutes. And with 1,548 LTO Ultrium Gen 9 cartridges, this two square meter cabinet has a maximum capacity of 69.5 petabytes if the data is compressed.
More secure and less expensive
This cabinet and these ninth generation cartridges thus make it possible to meet the needs for mass storage of data from sensors (Internet of Things or IoT) or necessary for analyses, artificial intelligence (AI), video streaming and of course digital archiving.
According to IBM, Diamondback has three main advantages. First, the reduction in power and cooling requirements results in a 97% lower carbon footprint than spinning disk storage.
Another interesting asset: data security once morest cyberattacks. The cabinet is not connected and it is isolated by compressed air. Finally, the cost would be much lower than that of traditional disks and public cloud archiving services.
