Tape Storage

 View Only

IBM a Leader in 2020 Distributed File Systems and Object storage Magic Quadrant – that is just part of the story

By Shawn Brume posted Tue November 10, 2020 08:16 AM

  

For five years in a row, IBM has been recognized as a leader in the  Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage for both its completeness of vision and ability to execute in the data-driven scale-out storage market for unstructured data.  The Gartner report analyzed many aspects and products in this year’s Magic Quadrant, but as with years past Gartner did not address one of the biggest thought leadership positions in unstructured data…the ability to natively leverage the lowest cost tier of storage, TAPE.

If you are relatively new to IT, you are probably wondering why tape is a thought leadership position in this space, tape is nearly 70 years young.  That is a great position to be in, maturity of technology is rare, but infrastructure modernization efforts often fail to take into account the requirements of tiered storage.  This is not an intentional oversight; the HDD and Object storage rhetoric is that the object storage solution is the archive tier for modern data solutions.  Solutions like AI, big data and IoT require massive storage. Data is a lot like household goods, we do not keep everything in the same closet at home, why try to pack all our different data into the same storage?

IBM Spectrum Scale with the integrated IBM Spectrum Archive component create the most robust unstructured data storage solution available. Embracing the sophistication of the Spectrum Scale Policy based data movement and the economics of scale from glacial data, clients utilizing IBM tape recognize data storage savings nearly equivalent to the percentage of data stored on tape verses powered technologies like HDD and Flash. 

The automation of data movement, Hierarchical Storage Management(HSM), is not just about the data movement, it is about the benefits that it provides back to the business.  IT modernization drives 5 Big benefits:

  • Better efficiency
  • Increased IT agility
  • Increased revenue
  • Improved security
  • Reduced operational costs

These benefits are recognized through the automation of infrastructure and improved reliability of modernized solutions.  Staff can focus on the delivery of business strategies and technology that accelerate growth, reduce costs and meet regulatory requirements, rather than running the day-to-day operations.

Modernizing infrastructure can be complicated, requiring the engagement of various resources, many process changes and touching many technologies.  Leadership is, stepping up to the challenges and making decisions that drive strategic growth in the long term.  Tape plays a huge part in enabling cost reduction in a part of IT that grows as a result of every business initiative. IBM Spectrum Scale with Spectrum archive is the only unstructured data solution in the industry that natively supports tiering to and from tape with fully automated software defined storage. 

 

 

>>Learn more about Spectrum Scale and Tape here.  

 

>> You can read a copy of the Gartner report here. 

Disclaimer: Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage, ID: G00463710. Analyst(s): Julia Palmer, Jerry Rozeman, Robert Preston, Chandra Mukhyala, Jeff Vogel, October 15, 2020. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

0 comments
369 views

Permalink