IBM prepares to demo 125TB MONSTER tape

The Register ^ | 19th October 2012 12:29 GMT | Chris Mellor

[Cementjungle]

I’m abosolutely stunned that they have a present day use.

I've worked in data centers where it's necessary to have archival storage. For example, someone needs to retrieve a file they had on their workstation back in January of last year (and deleted it in February, so it's not on more current backup copies).

Buying tapes for this purpose is still cheaper than buying hard drives for every copy you need.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Came from the system 3X world. 1600/6250 tape drives. We were ecstatic when cartridges came out. Of course the firmware wasn’t compatible and there were no PTF’s to fix it.

[Neidermeyer]

That’s a IBM 3380-J spindle/HDA , 1.26gb ... a string of 2 AJ’s and 14 BJ’s would be about $750,000.00 plus the 3880 controller...

[Neidermeyer]

Did you miss the “portable 125TB” part?
****************************************
portability is the key to making “CTAM”* work..

*CTAM = “Chevy Truck Access Method” to be used in case of hurricane , fire , flood or any other disaster.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Companies can have requirements for off-site storage of data that is not or cannot be kept on-line. My company does. Also virtual tape technology has its drawbacks regarding cost for some companies. The company I work for already has about 70 TB of data that needs to be backed up and shipped off-site regularly.

[Lurker]

What do you mean by “online”? Mission critical data is a heck of a lot more secure in a SAS certified data center than it is on a hunk of tape in the back seat of someone’s car.

[SkyDancer]

Ya, and now you can’t buy a 1G chip. Too small. Smallest is now 4G at 9 dollars or so.

[rawhide]

Aww yes. An old IBM 3380 disk drive. I’ve replaced my share of them over the years.

[ColdSteelTalon]

Virtual tape in the same data center is what I am referring to when I say on-line. We have a requirement that backups have to be kept at a separate physical location. We have a professional off-site storage company that handles our media that is fully certified for handling and storing tape and other media. So its not really as you say an option that we keep our backups in the back of someones car.

Of course you can backup your data to virtual tape in another data center but that is a huge expense that some companies do not want to get into.

[Lurker]

Maybe. Colo space is so cheap now that putting. VM server and a SAN in costs very little these days. It’s not like you have to build your own data center or anything these days.