IBM reboots storage strategy

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And it is incorporating the latest data "deduplication" technology that eliminates the need to keep many copies of the same information, a move that promises to help customers save vastly more information in the same amount of office space.

Making use of software and hardware it acquired by buying Diligent Technologies in April, IBM said the deduplication technology can reduced redundant data by a ratio of 25:1.

Deduplication joins storage virtualisation, another technique that IBM and it rivals are promoting to increase the usage of existing storage equipment, while making it easier to manage and cutting energy use.

Companies are running out of room in existing data centres to store these growing piles of information.

IBM is offering a high-density tape storage library system that uses robotic arms to locate and read archival data tapes that holds three times more cartridges in the same floor space. Businesses can store up to three petabytes, or quadrillion bits, of data in 10 square feet of floor space, it said.

To secure this data, the company also is offering systems with automatic data encryption using Seagate's encrypted hard drives.

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