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 * PRODUCTS
   * FUJIFILM PRODUCTS
     * OBJECT ARCHIVE
       Optimize Object Storage with
       Tape Archiving Software
     * LTO TAPE
       High-capacity Storage
       Solution
   * QSTAR TECHNOLOGIES
     * Archive Storage Manager
       Create A Vendor Neutral
       Active Archive
     * Network Migrator
       Policy Based Tiered Storage and
       Data Lifecycle Management
   * STRONGBOX DATA SOLUTIONS
     * Stronglink
       Policy-based Data and Storage
       Management Across any Flash, Disk,
       Tape, & Cloud Storage Platform
 * SOLUTIONS
   * HPC & RESEARCH
   * Storage Optimization
   * Active Archive
 * WHY LTO?
   * TCO Calculator
   * Ransomware Protection
   * Tiered Storage
   * Sustainability
 * ABOUT US
   * Events
   * News
 * CONTACT
 * BLOG

   
 * PRODUCTS
   
   * FUJIFILM PRODUCTS
     
     * OBJECT ARCHIVE
       Optimize Object Storage with
       Tape Archiving Software
     * LTO TAPE
       High-capacity Storage
       Solution
   * QSTAR TECHNOLOGIES
     
     * Archive Storage Manager
       Create A Vendor Neutral
       Active Archive
     * Network Migrator
       Policy Based Tiered Storage and
       Data Lifecycle Management
   * STRONGBOX DATA SOLUTIONS
     
     * Stronglink
       Policy-based Data and Storage
       Management Across any Flash, Disk,
       Tape, & Cloud Storage Platform
 * SOLUTIONS
   
   * HPC & RESEARCH
   * Storage Optimization
   * Active Archive
 * WHY LTO?
   
   * TCO Calculator
   * Ransomware Protection
   * Tiered Storage
   * Sustainability
 * ABOUT US
   
   * Events
   * News
 * CONTACT
 * BLOG


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FUJIFILM INSIGHTS BLOG

DATA STORAGE




AVOIDING POTENTIAL RISK OF STAGNATION IN THE SECONDARY STORAGE MARKET

Reading Time: 2 minutes

June 15, 2022

By Guest Blogger Peter Faulhaber, former president and CEO, FUJIFILM Recording
Media U.S.A., Inc.



The Hyperscale Data Center (HSDC) secondary storage market is quickly emerging,
requiring advanced solutions for petascale and exascale storage systems, not
currently available. According to HORISON Information Strategies, HSDCs
currently use around 3% of the world’s electrical energy. Due to the massive
energy footprint of HSDCs, climate protection measures have become increasingly
important in recent years, with cloud computing offering the greatest advantages
for sustainable operation by reducing the energy and carbon footprint over the
entire data life cycle.

The slowing rate of HDD and tape technology development roadmaps in recent
years, along with HDD and tape storage supplier consolidations are particularly
concerning trends to HSDCs. Neither HDD nor tape technology is currently
positioned by itself to effectively meet the enormous HSDC storage requirements
that future performance and capacity demands. High technical asset specificity
requires significant R&D investment, yet have limited ROI potential outside of
hyperscalers.

HSDCs manage over 60% of the world’s data today with a CAGR of 35 – 40%, with a
growing need for cost-effective secondary storage that still meets certain
performance thresholds.

The vendors and manufacturers are dis-incentivized to invest in novel
technology; the risk reward is not high enough, while HSDCs are leveraging their
buying and bargaining power. Manufacturers need to invest hundreds of millions
to bring innovative solutions to market in a long development cycle, without a
commitment from the HSDC market.

As a result, the secondary storage market is left with incremental investments
in existing technologies and moves slowly.

The conditions are set for a widening gap between customer demands and product
solutions in the secondary storage market.

The current “vendor-driven” strategy will not keep pace with HSDC requirements
for secondary storage as such offerings fall far behind HSDC curves. Photonics,
DNA, glass, and holographic experiments are attempting to address the market,
and have been in labs for decades, but most have drawbacks, and none are on the
near-term horizon for customer deployment. These initiatives show that a change
is needed to get ahead of the demand curve.

However, the opportunity also exists to mitigate this risk by bringing the
interested parties together  to share the risk reward paradigm. HSDCs need a
quantum leap, which only comes with significant investment, best shared by the
interested parties.

The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) addressed the concept  of vertical
market failure in September 2021 in its published article “New Trajectories for
Memory and Storage,” stating, “The prospect of vertical market failure can be
mitigated by private sector market participants through risk-share agreements
between customers and suppliers, as well as increased vertical integration.”

Without change, current technologies will fall far behind HSDC demand curves,
and the current vendor-driven trajectory increases the likelihood of un-met
demand and stagnation of growth for all involved.

 

Read More


WOW! 70 YEARS OF TAPE TECHNOLOGY

Reading Time: 2 minutes

May 31, 2022

By Guest Blogger, Dr. Shawn O. Brume Sc. D., IBM Tape Evangelist and Strategist



According to a study by McKinsey, the average lifespan of companies listed in
Standard & Poor’s is less than 18 years! That means that tape technology is
already in business almost 4 times longer than the average S&P will survive. 
Tape technology celebrated 70 years young on May 21st.  Tape has been and
continues to be the most transforming data storage technology in history.

In the 50’s it was the only viable technology for storing data generated by the
few computers in existence. In the 60’s tape took the world to the moon and
preserved the data for usage nearly 40 years later when it was retrieved to
assist in modern space explorations. By the 70’s Tape was dominating storage,
transforming the financial industry by providing the ability to access data on
accounts with minimal human intervention. The 80’s and 90’s continued the
transformation of data availability by performing transactional data storage for
ATMs, but also was key in the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger
disaster; an investigation enhanced as a result of the durability of tape even
when submerged in saltwater.

Today tape lives in the data center, preserving Zettabytes of data. Data being
preserved and utilized across nearly every industry, examples:

Healthcare –  Data preserved on tape is being utilized to develop new predictive
health services. Digital medical records can be retained for the life of
patients and shared across organizations.

Financial – Online transaction retention ensures customers valuable financial
data is protected in the eventuality of a cyber-attack. Mortgage loans are
preserved without fear of tampering.

Cloud – Data stored in public clouds are growing at a 30% faster rate than
traditional storage. Cloud providers rely on tape to provide data durability and
low-cost storage subscriptions.

Tape’s popularity has often been driven by the low cost of storage, modern data
storage requires so much more including cyber-resiliency, data durability and
low carbon footprints that enable sustainable IT.

Cyber Resiliency – Tape is the only true airgap data storage solution available.

Data Durability – Tape has a native single copy durability of 11- Nines. This
means the likelihood of a single bit failure is 1 in 100 Petabytes.

Sustainability – At scale tape technology is 96% lower carbon footprint than
highly dense HDD storage (when comparing OCP Bryce canyon and IBM tape
technology with 27PB of data).

If preserving data, in a cyber-resilient solution, at low cost, with relatively
low carbon impact meets your business outcomes, then why wait? Clearly tape is
here to stay and surging in usage across nearly every business use case.

Happy 70-years to an amazing technology!

For more information about technology since tape’s introduction, check out this
post from my colleague Mike Doran.

For more information on current tape products see the IBM product page.

 

Read More


TAPE ADVANCEMENTS PUSH STORAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY BENEFITS TO NEW LEVELS

Reading Time: 2 minutes

May 24, 2022



The Tape Storage Council, (TSC), released a new report “Tape to Play Critical
Roles as the Zettabyte Era Takes Off,” which highlights the current trends,
usages and technology innovations occurring within the tape storage industry.
 The zettabyte era is in full swing generating unprecedented capacity demand as
many businesses move closer to Exascale storage requirements.

According to the LTO Program, 148 Exabytes (EB) of total tape capacity
(compressed) shipped in 2021, marking an impressive record year. With a growth
rate of 40%, this strong performance in shipments continues following the
previous record-breaking 110 EB capacity shipped in 2019 and 105 EB of capacity
shipped in the pandemic affected year of 2020.

The ever-increasing thirst for IT services has pushed energy usage, carbon
emissions, and reducing the storage industry’s growing impact on global climate
change to center stage. Plus, ransomware and cybercrime protection requirements
are driving increased focus on air gap protection measures.

As a result of these trends, among others, the TSC expects tape to play an even
broader role in the IT ecosystem going forward as the number of exabyte-sized
environments grow. Key trends include:

 * Data-intensive applications and workflows fuel new tape growth.
 * Data accessibility. Tape performance improves access times and throughput.
 * Tape should be included in every green data center strategy.
 * Storage optimization receives a big boost from an active archive which
   provides dynamic optimization and fast data access for archival storage
   systems.

Organizations continue to invest in LTO tape technology thanks to its high
capacity, reliability, low cost, low power consumption and strong data
protection features, especially as threats to cybersecurity soar.

To access the full report, visit: Tape to Play Critical Roles as the Zettabyte
Era Takes Off.

 

Read More


OBSERVING EARTH DAY 2022 IN LIGHT OF RECORD LTO DATA TAPE CAPACITY SHIPMENTS

Reading Time: 5 minutes

April 22, 2022

By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism



The LTO Technology Provider Companies (IBM, HPE, and Quantum) issued a press
release earlier this week announcing record capacity shipments for LTO in 2021
of 148 Exabytes (148,000 Petabytes) compressed (up from 105 EB compressed in
2020, +40%). More and more of the world’s data is being stored on LTO data tape.
That’s good news for the IT industry! Is it not? After all, end users and
service providers need:

 * A strategic way to store and protect massive amounts of increasingly valuable
   data, especially data that’s gone cool or cold
 * A cost-effective and reliable long term storage solution
 * An air gap defense against cybercrime
 * An eco-friendly form of storage!

 

Industry Pundits React
Some industry pundits, biased toward the HDD industry, took the opportunity to
downplay the news. They said the data is inaccurate or insignificant compared to
the capacity shipments for HDD last year. Really? Does tape technology threaten
the market for HDD? Is it still about tape vs. disk in their minds? Have trains,
trucks, and ships put air freight out of business? Or does a more strategic
thought process say: “These technologies complement each other. We need both to
meet the needs of end-users, storage service providers, and society itself…”

Analysts Predict Huge Zettabyte Demand
Indeed, if the big industry analysts firms are right, we will need to be storing
more than 11.0 zettabytes of data in 2025. Just one zettabyte would require 55
million 18.0 TB HDDs or 55 million LTO-9 tape cartridges. Should we store all of
that data on HDD, whether it is hot, warm, cool, or cold? Of course, we can’t
just delete excess data. Now that we can analyze the data and derive a
competitive advantage from it, the value of data has increased and we need to
store more and more data for longer periods of time. As a result, the
projections for the amount of persistent data to be stored are growing
exponentially. We will need huge amounts of flash, HDD, tape, and even future
storage solutions like DNA to address the data storage challenge.

A Strategic Approach to Data Storage
The key to success will be a strategic approach that leverages intelligent data
management software to automate data movement to the right tiers of storage at
the right time, the right cost, and the right energy profile. Employing a
strategic approach to data storage in an effort to reduce costs and energy
consumption all while maintaining service level agreements seems to make sense.
Take a good look at an active archive solution, for example. Yet again, there
are those industry pundits who say, the amount of energy saved by moving static,
inactive, and infrequently accessed data to a tape tier is not significant in
the big picture of the IT industry. The real problem they say is the amount of
energy consumed by a single Google search. But isn’t that like saying; “Don’t
bother turning the lights out before leaving the office for the night. It’s just
a drop in the ocean of energy consumption,” or “Why bother turning off the
engine of your car when filling up on gas? It’s just a few minutes of idle time
and won’t really impact CO2 emissions at all.” Right?

Change of Attitude Needed
But this is the wrong attitude and exactly what has to change to make a
difference. Collectively, if we all switch off a light and all turn the car’s
engine off, we will make a difference. We might even get motivated for more
change! How about installing LED light bulbs or investing in an electric
vehicle? Or maybe make the commitment and take the leadership on a renewable
energy installation. Attitudes have to change, believing we can make a
difference collectively. If data is inactive, why keep it on energy-intensive,
constantly spinning disk? Are we all doing whatever it takes to make a
difference?

New Flagship UN Report Is a Wake-up Call
If we believe the latest studies on climate change coming out of the United
Nations, we need to start quickly taking any action we can. A new UN report on
climate change from earlier this month indicated that harmful carbon emissions
in the last decade have never been higher in earth’s history. It’s proof that
the world is on a “fast track” to climate disaster. UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres has warned that it’s ‘now or never’ to limit global warming to 1.5
degrees C. Climate change is the result of more than a century of unsustainable
energy and land use, lifestyles, and patterns of consumption and production.
Guterres adds, “This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us
will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global
warming of more than double the 1.5-degrees C limit” that was agreed in Paris in
2015. To limit global warming to around 1.5 C (2.7 F), the IPCC report insists
that global greenhouse gas emissions will have to peak “before 2025 at the
latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030.”

Reducing Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions with Tape
To help increase awareness and understanding of energy consumption in data
storage, a number of whitepapers have been published highlighting alternative
options for storage including LTO data tape. A recent IDC whitepaper studied
migrating cold data from HDDs to LTO tape. The opportunity to positively impact
the environment by shifting to tape is staggering. This strategic approach can
reduce storage-related CO2 emissions by, coincidently, 43.7% by 2030. This would
avoid 664 M metric tons of CO2 cumulatively. That’s the equivalent amount of CO2
produced by 144 million passenger cars driven in the course of a year!

Other research shows that tape consumes 87% less energy than equivalent amounts
of HDD storage. When CO2 emissions are analyzed over the entire product
lifecycle (from raw materials to production to distribution, usage, and
disposal) of HDD and tape, studies show a 95% reduction in CO2 in favor of tape
compared to HDD. The same study shows Total Cost of Ownership for long-term data
storage can be reduced by more than 70% by using tape instead of HDD. At the
same time, tape can provide an effective defense against cybercrime via a
physical air gap. All of this is possible by taking a strategic storage
approach, where cool or cold data that has aged and is infrequently accessed
gets moved from expensive primary storage to economical and environmentally
friendly tape systems, online or offline.

Data Center World Attendees Get It
In my last blog on my visit and presentation at Data Center World in Austin last
month, I mentioned that I was encouraged by the DCW attendees that I met and
listened to in my session and other sessions. They are genuinely concerned about
the environment and worried about what kind of planet we will be leaving behind
for our kids and grandchildren. They recognize the opportunity to improve
sustainability in data center operations and are committed to it. But since then
it has occurred to me that maybe sustainability is more of a focus for facility
teams. Perhaps the top-down pressure from the C-suite has yet to be widely
applied to the data storage management teams. However, in the quest to achieve
the needed sustainability goals, no stone can remain unturned.

Observing Earth Day for Future Generations
With Earth Day being observed today, let’s commit to strategically taking action
in response to global warming and climate change. Let’s start changing attitudes
from “It won’t make a difference” to “Collectively, we can make a difference.”
Let’s look at the bright side of increasing LTO capacity shipments instead of
the dark, self-serving side. Let’s think about the planet that’s home for us and
the future generations of our families to come.

 

Read More


COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY AT DATA CENTER WORLD INCLUDES HOW TO AVOID CO2
EMISSIONS IN LONG TERM STORAGE WITH MODERN DATA TAPE TECHNOLOGY

Reading Time: 5 minutes

> March 31, 2022
> 
> By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism
> 
> 
> 
> I had the opportunity to present at AFCOM’s Data Center World (DCW) exhibit
> and conference in Austin, Texas yesterday. The first thing I have to share
> about this experience is how surreal it was to get back on an airplane! It was
> my first trip since COVID started two years ago with many zoom presentations
> and virtual conferences since then. But not much has changed about air travel.
> The seating is still cramped, the flight was packed full, and my dog gets more
> snacks in a four hour period than I did on my four hour flight!
> 
> Committed to Sustainability
> Sustainability is a hot topic these days and was one of the main themes of
> this year’s DCW. It was also the topic I presented on, specifically “How to
> Avoid CO2 Emissions in Long Term Storage with Modern Data Tape Technology.”
> The good news is that the DCW attendees that I met and listened to in other
> sessions are genuinely concerned about the environment and worried about what
> kind of planet we will be leaving behind for our kids and grandchildren. They
> recognize the opportunity to improve sustainability in data center operations
> and are committed to it.
> 
> Key Questions about Storage
> At the outset of my presentation, I asked for a show of hands for those
> directly involved in data storage. I was not surprised to confirm my suspicion
> that there would be few if any attendees to raise a hand, since AFCOM’s DCW is
> more about facilities management than storage management. But I was also glad
> to see this because we need everyone to be advocates for any possible
> sustainability improvements in IT operations. So I asked my audience to lean
> on their colleagues in storage and pose two simple questions to them: “If data
> has gone cold and is infrequently accessed, why are we keeping it on energy
> intensive tiers of storage like constantly spinning and heat producing HDD
> arrays? Why not move it to eco-friendly tape?” The attendees in my session
> admitted they can feel the power drain and heat being produced by endless disk
> arrays in their data centers.
> 
> 
> 
> Climate Change and Global Warming
> I began my presentation by setting the stage on global warming from the forest
> fires in 2020, to the Texas deep freeze in early 2021, to the fact that July
> of 2021 was the hottest month ever on earth. Add to this the dire reports from
> the U.N. in late 2021 and early 2022. All this has led to changing consumer
> sentiment demanding that governments do more. Thankfully they are. Corporate
> attitudes are also changing from resistance to action on climate and we will
> be seeing more CSOs (Chief Sustainability Officers) being appointed and
> implementing change top down. Even Wall Street and the SEC are getting in on
> the act, demanding reporting and disclosures on corporate sustainability
> initiatives.
> 
> Energy Intensive IT Industry
> Next, I confirmed what we all know, that the IT industry is energy intensive
> and its demand for energy is rapidly increasing. The demand curve for energy
> looks similar to the demand curve for data storage. Driven by digital
> transformation, IDC expects persistent data that needs to be stored to grow
> from 2.0 ZB in 2016 to more than 11.0 ZB in 2025, a CAGR of 27%. Suffice it to
> say no one in the audience really understood what a zettabyte was or that just
> one zettabyte was equal to the capacity of 55 million LTO-9 data cartridges or
> 55 million 18.0 TB HDDs. That’s a lot of storage requirement for one
> zettabyte, let alone 11.0 zettabytes in 2025. We are going to need a lot of
> flash, disk and tape to handle that kind of volume!
> 
> Renewable Energy plus Conservation
> Next came the conversation about renewables and how Greenpeace has done a
> great job advocating for more use of renewables in data centers, especially
> the cloud hyperscalers. But from the looks of progress being made on this
> front, renewable sources of energy likely can’t come on line fast enough or
> cheaply enough, or in sufficient volume to satisfy the energy needs of the
> massive data center industry. While Fujifilm is a big fan of renewables (we
> use it ourselves for our LTO plant in Boston) what’s really needed is a
> combination of renewables and energy conservation. How about turning off those
> lights and HDDs before leaving the office each night!
> 
> The Data Life Cycle
> When it comes to conserving energy in data storage, one needs to understand a
> few simple principles related to the “data lifecycle.” Data quickly goes cold
> and access frequency drops off dramatically after 30, 60 or 90 days. At the
> same time, data retention periods are getting longer, sometimes reaching
> indefinite time periods. This is where data tiering saves the day as cold data
> can move from expensive, energy intensive tiers of storage to economy,
> eco-friendly tiers like modern data tape.
> 
> Advantages of Eco-Friendly Tape
> I then shared the research findings from Brad Johns Consulting in his two
> white papers where tape consumes 87% less energy and produces 87% less CO2
> than equivalent amounts of HDD storage. When analyzed over the total product
> lifecycle from procurement of raw materials to production to distribution to
> usage and finally disposal, tape produces 95% less CO2 than HDD and produces
> 80% less e-waste. I also shared the results of an IDC study that shows
> migrating more cold data from tape to HDD could result in an avoidance of 664
> million metric tons of CO2 on a global basis by 2030. That’s the CO2
> equivalent of 144 million automobiles being taken off the road for a full
> year! I also referenced research by IBM showing a side by side compare of
> TS4500 tape library and Bryce Canyon HDD where the IBM gear produced 80% less
> CO2 over a ten year period than the Bryce Canyon system. To round things out,
> I shared the end user perspective from an executive roundtable where Microsoft
> Azure stated:
> 
> “When you take the material savings and power savings, tape actually does
> offer quite a bit of advantage compared to other technologies that are on the
> market today.”
> 
> Since my audience wanted to know more, I briefly covered tape’s other benefits
> including:
> 
>  * Tape remains the lowest cost storage media on a $/GB basis
>  * Tape storage supports air gap ransomware
>  * Tape can reliably store data for long periods with an excellent bit error
>    rate
>  * Tape technology has room to grow in areal density and therefore capacity,
>    and has a well-defined roadmap
> 
> I concluded by saying that data growth is here to stay and the volumes of
> valuable data are getting enormous. What the industry needs to do in support
> of strategic data storage management and sustainability objectives is this:
> 
> “Get the right data, in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost,
> and…at the right energy consumption level.”
> 
> I think the attendees got the message and now see modern tape storage as part
> of the carbon reduction answer for the data centers of today and tomorrow. It
> was well worth the snack deprived four hour flight!
> 
>  
> 
>  

Read More


NEW FEDERAL CYBERSECURITY MANDATES ENACTED AND SEC RULES PROPOSED, AMIDST
NEVER-ENDING RANSOMWARE ATTACKS

Reading Time: 5 minutes



March 17, 2022

By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism

As I started to write this blog on recent ransomware observations, an email
message popped up on my PC from our IT department advising of additional and
more stringent security enhancements taking place almost immediately to toughen
my company’s cybersecurity and increase our protection against current and
emerging threats. A sign of these cybercrime times, indeed!

Ransomware Trending
According to a February 2022 Alert from CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure
Security Agency), 2021 trends showed an increasing threat of ransomware to
organizations globally with tactics and techniques continuing to evolve in
technological sophistication. So-called “big game” organizations like Colonial
Pipeline, Kronos, JBS, Kaseya, and SolarWinds made the ransomware headlines over
the past year or so. But according to the CISA Alert, by mid-2021, many
ransomware threat actors, under pressure from U.S. authorities, turned their
attention toward mid-sized victims to reduce the scrutiny and disruption caused
by said authorities.

In a recent Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) study, 64% of respondents said their
organization had paid a ransom to regain access to data, applications, or
systems. These findings are supported by the latest Threat Landscape report from
the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity. It highlighted a 150% rise in
ransomware in 2021 compared to 2020. The agency expects that trend to continue,
and even accelerate in 2022.

But these numbers hide the stark reality of the ransomware scourge. Gangs like
DarkSide, REvil, and BlackMatter are terrorizing organizations with ransomware –
and they are getting smarter and more organized. They have moved beyond the
basic ploy of infecting files, locking users out of their data, and demanding a
fee. They still want money. But they also endanger reputations by exposing
attacks, blackmailing companies by threatening to reveal corporate or personal
dirty laundry, and selling intellectual property (IP) to competitors.

As a result, cybersecurity spending has become a priority in most organizations.
According to ESG, 69% of organizations plan to spend more on cybersecurity in
2022 than in the previous year, while 68% of senior IT decision-makers identify
ransomware as one of their organization’s top 5 business priorities.  Such is
the fear factor that organizations are now treating cybersecurity ahead of other
organizational imperatives such as the cloud, artificial intelligence (AI),
digital transformation, and application development.

New Federal Mandate and the SEC Takes Action
On March 15th, in an effort to thwart cyberattacks from foreign spies and
criminal hacking groups, President Biden signed into law a requirement for many
critical-infrastructure companies to report to the government when they have
been hacked. This way, authorities can better understand the scope of the
problem and take appropriate action.

It’s also no wonder that the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking
action. On March 9th, the SEC voted 3 to 1 to propose reporting and disclosures
related to cybercrime incidents and preparedness. In a nutshell, the SEC will be
asking publicly traded companies:

 * To disclose material cybersecurity incidents
 * To disclose its policies and procedures to identify and manage cybersecurity
   risks
 * To disclose management’s role and expertise in managing cybersecurity risks
 * To disclose the board of director’s oversight role

Specifically, the SEC will want to know:

 * Whether a company undertakes activities to prevent, detect and minimize the
   effects of cybersecurity incidents
 * Whether it has business continuity, contingency, and recovery plans in the
   event of a cybersecurity incident
 * Whether the entire board, certain board members, or a board committee is
   responsible for the oversight of cybersecurity risks
 * Whether and how the board or board committee considers cybersecurity risks as
   part of its business strategy, risk management, and financial oversight

Holding publicly traded companies and their boards accountable for best
practices in combating ransomware is a big step in the right direction and will
no doubt free up the required budgets and resources.

Lowering the Fear Factor
Cybersecurity is already a top spending priority for 2022 and with SEC
regulations looming, will likely continue to be a priority for quite some time.
Companies are busy beefing up the tools and resources needed to thwart
ransomware. They are buying intrusion response tools and services, extended or
managed detection and response suites, security information and event management
platforms, antivirus, anti-malware, next-generation firewalls, and more,
including cybercrime insurance policies.

What may be missing in the spending frenzy, however, are some fundamental basics
that can certainly lower the fear factor. Backup tools are an essential
ingredient in being able to swiftly recover from ransomware or other attacks.
Similarly, thorough and timely patch management greatly lowers the risk of
hackers finding a way into the enterprise via an unpatched vulnerability.

Another smart purchase is software that scans data and backups to ensure that no
ransomware or malware is hidden inside. It is not uncommon for a ransomware
victim to conduct a restore and find that its backup files have also been
corrupted by malware. Cleansing data that is ready to be backed up has become
critical. These are some of the fundamental basics that need to be in place in
the fight against ransomware. Organizations that neglect them suffer far more
from breaches than those that take care of them efficiently.

Adding an Air Gap
Another fundamental basic is the elegantly simple air gap. When data is stored
in the cloud, on disk, or in a backup appliance, it remains connected to the
network. This leaves it vulnerable to unauthorized access and infection from bad
actors. An air gap is essentially a physical gap between data and the network.
It disconnects backed up or archived data from the Internet.

Such a gap commonly exists by partitioning in, or removing tapes from, an
automated tape library and either storing them on a shelf or sending them to a
secure external service provider. If that data is properly scanned prior to
being backed up or archived to ensure it is free of infection, it offers
certainty that a corruption-free copy of data exists. If a ransomware attack
occurs, the organization can confidently fall back on a reliable copy of its
data – and avoid any ransom demands.

Effectively Combatting Ransomware
There is no silver security bullet that will 100% guarantee freedom from
ransomware. It is truly a multi-faceted strategy. Implementation of
best-of-breed security tools is certainly necessary. But they must be supported
by the steadfast application of backup and patching best practices and the
addition of a tape-based air gap.

CISA, the FBI, and cybersecurity insurance companies all recommend offline,
offsite, air-gapped copies of data. This can be achieved cost-effectively with
today’s removable, and highly portable modern tape technology. The boards of
publicly traded companies will likely want to do whatever it takes to
demonstrate compliance with best practices to meet the SEC requirements. This
should include air-gapped tape as part of a prudent and comprehensive strategy.
A best practice in these cybercrime times, indeed!

 

Read More


OPTIMIZING OBJECT STORAGE WITH TAPE ARCHIVING SOFTWARE: EXECUTIVE Q&A WITH CHRIS
KEHOE, DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Reading Time: 3 minutes



March 9, 2022

In this executive Q&A, Chris Kehoe, Director of Sales & Marketing, discusses his
role at FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A. and how the company’s Object Archive
software helps solve a major customer pain point as data continues to grow yet
resources and budgets do not.

Q: Tell us about your role as Director of Sales and Marketing for Fujifilm’s
Data Management Solutions?

As the Director of Sales and Marketing for Fujifilm’s Data Management Solutions,
I’m tasked with bringing Fujifilm’s Object Archive software product to the North
American market. This includes implementing a sales and marketing strategy for
specific target markets.  My team provides full support for demand generation,
sales, and post-sales activities such as installation and support.  There are
two major focal points in these roles; the first is building and implementing a
focused, market-based approach ensuring our product values intersect the market
and customers’ needs.  The second is ensuring the best customer experience while
working with Fujifilm products, people, and resellers.  This includes
on-the-street sales and engineering readiness and customer support capabilities
to ensure a fully capable delivery of exceptional customer satisfaction.

“Object Archive delivers low-cost storage and high reliability for long term
data archiving and preservation,” – Chris Kehoe

Q: What are the key features and benefits of Object Archive software?

Object Archive software operates like an on-premise cloud archive service
through its simple-to-use S3 API and cross-organization and multi-tenant
capabilities.  By leveraging today’s highly advanced data tape, automated tape
libraries, and state-of-the-art software, Object Archive delivers low-cost
storage and high reliability for long-term data archiving and preservation. This
solves a major customer pain point as data continues to grow yet resources and
budgets do not.

Q: What is your basic go-to-market strategy and what are your key target
markets?

Our basic go-to-market strategy is to sell Object Archive into the North
American market through Fujifilm’s VAR channel.  One of our primary targets is
the computational science and digital preservation departments inside of the
non-profit research, research universities, and government labs. These customers
have a critical need to properly classify data and to move that data as it ages
and cools to the right storage, at the right time and cost. Object Archive
supports that strategy very effectively.

Q: What’s your perspective on tape technology and its future?

Tape technology is uniquely suited as the only technology that has the
capability to scale in terms of the capacity that is required to specifically
meet the long-term retention needs resulting from the significant projected
growth of data.  There is no other solution that can achieve similar cost,
performance, and retention metrics. Tape has a significant advantage when it
comes to TCO, has plenty of performance for the profile of data that it stores
and protects, and a long archival life beyond what is probably needed. Add to
that best-in-class reliability and the benefit of the lowest energy-consuming
data storage solution available. That’s important at a time when sustainability
and climate change are becoming a priority for just about everyone.

Q: What is your perspective on cybercrime and the benefits of air gap?

Air gap is a no brainer for tape systems, since the beginning of its
development, tape has been designed and used to manage and protect data against
online and physical threats and disasters. Moving a copy of your data to offline
tape means that this data is no longer connected to the network, it’s removed
from the threat matrix of online attacks.  Moving a copy of your data to a
secure offsite vault will protect your data from numerous threats and disasters.
It has always been a best practice across all organizations to have a fully
protected copy of data offline.  This is even more critical today since the
threat of cybercrime and ransomware is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it
will only continue to increase and we’re glad to help our customers protect
themselves.

For more information, visit
https://www.datastorage-na.fujifilm.com/object-archive. 

Read More


MAJORITY OF C-SUITE RESPONDENTS WOULD CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE DATA STORAGE OPTION
THAT IS MORE SUSTAINABLE AND AFFORDABLE, SURVEY CONFIRMS

Reading Time: 4 minutes



February 14, 2022

By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism

I think it’s safe to say people like surveys, probably not everyone, but most
people do. Why? Experts in the field suggest that people are willing to take
surveys because respondents feel their opinions are valued and that their
answers will be used and may even result in a benefit to society. They feel
their participation will impact something they care about, and they want to
share their opinion with those who will listen and act on the information.

Surveying the C-Suite on Sustainability
So it’s not surprising that Fujifilm got a great response rate to a recently
launched survey entitled Awareness Survey on Environmental Issues in the Digital
Domain.  As many as 1,200 C-suite professionals responded including CEOs, CFOs,
CSOs, CTOs, and CIOs from companies of 100 or more employees in the United
States, Germany, Japan, and China.

The survey revealed that there is a growing awareness around broader
environmental issues among corporate leaders, and that’s great news as the
negative impacts of global warming and climate change keep piling up, flood
after flood, wildfire after wildfire, and storm after storm.

When it comes to IT infrastructure specifically, the majority of U.S.
respondents believe sustainability improvements in IT services and equipment can
positively impact climate change, but 40% indicated that they did not know or
were unsure if data storage can have a negative environmental impact and
increase the cost of doing business.

Increasing Data Storage Requirements
Data storage can certainly be energy-intensive. This is a problem that is only
getting worse as the value of data rises with the ability to analyze and derive
competitive advantage from it. As a result, demand for long-term data retention
is increasing. In fact, data to be stored is expected to grow from just 2.0
zettabytes in 2016 to 4.1 ZB in 2020 and is expected to reach 11.1 ZB in 2025
according to a recent whitepaper from IDC. Just one ZB is a vast amount of data
equal to one million petabytes that would need 55 million 18 TB hard disk drives
(HDDs) or 55 million 18 TB LTO-9 tapes to store. The environmental impact of the
energy required to support this volume of storage is greatly underestimated, as
are the associated carbon emissions. When asked in the survey what barriers
exist for those who have not considered more eco-friendly data storage options,
31% in the U.S. cited a lack of awareness or understanding of the issue.

Hot vs. Cold Data
There was also a lack of awareness pertaining to frequently accessed “hot” data
and less frequently accessed “cold” data, with 36% of respondents saying they
either don’t or are unsure if they differentiate between the two. And 35% don’t
realize that differentiating between hot and cold data can impact
sustainability, affordability, and security. An interesting fact about data is
that it quickly goes cold and access frequency drops off significantly after
just 30, 60, or even 90 days. In fact, industry analysts estimate that 60% to
80% of all data stored is cold and qualifies as “archival”. Yet through inertia,
that data often remains on energy intensive, constantly spinning and
heat-producing tiers of storage like hard disk drives.

Reducing Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions with Tape
To help increase awareness and understanding of this issue, a number of
whitepapers have been published highlighting alternative options for storage
including LTO data tape. A recent IDC whitepaper shows how migrating cold data
from HDDs to LTO tape can reduce data centers’ CO2 emissions by 43.7% by 2030,
avoiding 664 M metric tons of CO2 cumulatively. Other research shows that tape
consumes 87% less energy than equivalent amounts of HDD storage. When CO2
emissions are analyzed over the entire product lifecycle (from raw materials to
production to distribution, usage, and disposal) of HDD and tape, studies show a
95% reduction in CO2 in favor of tape compared to HDD. The same study shows
Total Cost of Ownership for long-term data storage can be reduced by more than
70% using tape instead of HDD. All of this is possible by taking a storage
optimization approach, where data that has aged and is infrequently accessed,
otherwise known as cold data, gets moved from expensive primary storage like
solid-state flash drives and HDDs to economical and environmentally friendly
tape systems.

As far as security is concerned, tape is also playing a role in cybercrime
prevention with air gap capabilities, WORM, and encryption. Intelligent data
management software, typical in today’s active archive environments, can
automatically move data from expensive, energy-intensive tiers of storage to
more economical and energy-efficient tiers based on user-defined policies. By
moving inactive data out of primary storage, the ransomware attack surface can
also be reduced.

Renewable Energy Plus Conservation
Another interesting point from the survey reveals that 51% of participants said
that their companies are using renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions,
while 22% said they are doing so via climate protection projects and 13% through
carbon offsets. Renewable energy is a key factor in reducing CO2 emissions and
Fujifilm is a fan (see photo at right of our LTO plant in Bedford, MA). But
alone renewables likely can’t come online fast enough or cheaply enough to keep
up with data growth rates of between 30% – 60% annually in major data centers
today. That’s why conservation has to be part of the equation. The very first
metric to be analyzed in data center energy efficiency is simply the amount of
energy that’s being consumed.

Alternative Data Storage Options
Finally, 81% of respondents noted that they would consider an alternative data
storage option that is more sustainable and affordable. That option exists in
the form of today’s modern and highly advanced data tape systems that offer the
lowest energy consumption and cost profile. Add to that its best-in-class
reliability rating of any storage media and longest archival life. So for the
benefit of society, let’s act on the information that the survey reveals. It’s
really just a question of getting the right data, in the right place, at the
right time.

Read More


3 REASONS WHY MIGRATING DATA TO TAPE SYSTEMS MAKES SENSE IN LIGHT OF SSD AND HDD
SUPPLY CHAIN CONCERNS

Reading Time: 3 minutes

January 25, 2022

By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism



The Arrival of the Zettabyte Era
The data storage market has clearly entered the “zettabyte era” where new
capacity shipments have exceeded a massive one zettabyte for a couple of years
now. The data storage requirements are being driven by the phenomenon of
“digital transformation” and the rising value of data that needs to be stored
for longer periods of time, and in some cases, indefinitely. Further
accelerating the zettabyte era is the other era we are all in, that being the
“pandemic era”. With this era comes the unanticipated need for an unexpected
remote workforce and the ever-expanding internet with its proliferation of
online apps.

Pandemic Related Supply Shortages
The pandemic has brought with it related disruptions to the global supply chain
including shortages of semiconductor chips. It’s been tough to get modern goods
from toys to notebooks to refrigerators to automobiles. The combination of
zettabyte and pandemic era has even put a strain on supply chains and the
availability of SSDs and HDDs needed to support the digital transformation. This
has been the cause of fluctuating prices based on quarterly supply and demand
swings.

Supply Chain Challenges Persist
While pandemic-related labor shortages have delayed the production and
distribution of goods, other factors are making matters worse. How about global
warming, climate change, and the ensuing natural disasters that have had
negative impacts on the supply chain? How about international rivalries and
tensions impacting the availability of key components? Or cybercriminals
shutting down vital infrastructure? Bottom line: industry pundits say we can
expect supply chain hassles to continue throughout 2022.

Supply Chain Contingency Planning in Data Storage
Faced with supply chain risks in any industry, it’s always good to have
contingency plans to mitigate risk and ensure ongoing operations. The IT
industry is no exception where the availability of commodities that we may take
for granted can be interrupted by any of the factors listed above from
unforeseen demand to pandemic-related shortages to global warming, trade wars,
and cybercrime.

A great way to avoid supply chain disruptions in the availability of primary
storage devices like SSDs and HDDs is to employ intelligent data management
software, typical of active archive solutions, that will automate the migration
of data from these potentially supply chain affected devices to a modern,
automated tape library. Since 60 to 80 percent of data quickly goes cold after a
short period of time, why keep it stored on higher performing, expensive, and
energy-intensive devices? Given the global supply chain uncertainty, 3 good
reasons to migrate data from primary storage devices to tape storage are:

 * Free up capacity on expensive Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage devices like SSDs and
   HDDs in favor of TCO friendly tape systems
 * Reduce energy consumption and related CO2 emissions by leveraging the low
   power profile of automated tape systems
 * Take advantage of tape’s natural air gap security in the never-ending war
   against ransomware

The above actually makes sense even in the absence of supply chain concerns.
Since data to be stored is growing at a CAGR of around 30% versus IT budget
growth somewhere in the low single digits, the IT industry needs to find a more
cost-effective storage solution. With the increasing value of data and
indefinite retention periods, the long-term archival profile of tape coupled
with best-in-class reliability actually makes sense.

Fighting Climate Change and Cybercrime
Finally, we all have to engage in the battle against global warming and climate
change if we are to preserve the planet that we inhabit. Studies show that tape
systems consume 87% less energy than equivalent amounts of disk storage and
produce 95% less CO2 emissions than disk over the product lifecycle. Other
studies show that collectively, the global IT industry could avoid as much as
664 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by strategically moving more data to
tape systems.  As data cools off or goes cold, it should migrate to less
expensive, less energy-intensive, and more secure tiers of storage.

Once the pandemic era finally subsides, it will be environmental calamities
brought on by climate change and the relentless threat of cybercriminals that
will have long-term impacts on supply chains.

Read More


5 BIG PREDICTIONS THAT WILL IMPACT DATA STORAGE IN 2022…AND BEYOND

Reading Time: 3 minutes

January 5, 2022

By Rich Gadomski, Head of Tape Evangelism, FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A., Inc.



It seems like 2020 and 2021 have blended to combine into one long, tough time
for all of us. Let’s hope 2022 emerges on the brighter side! In the meantime,
here are 5 big predictions we see coming up in this New Year and beyond:

1. Increasing Focus on IT Energy Consumption

Severe weather was once again a hallmark of 2021, from the Texas deep freeze
right up to the bitter end of 2021. As unusual tornadoes and wildfires reminded
us of the negative impact of global warming and climate change.

According to a report from the United Nations released in August of 2021,
irreversible damage has already been done to the environment as a result of
greenhouse gas emissions. The world showed renewed interest in the COP 26
conference in Glasgow where countries from around the globe gathered to pledge
their commitments to combat climate change.

Wall Street got in on the act too and will increasingly demand that companies
disclose their sustainability initiatives and results. Accordingly, more and
more companies will be appointing Chief Sustainability Officers who will put
pressure on their organization’s energy usage including energy-intensive IT
operations.  The use of renewables, but also energy conservation measures will
be mandated.

Curbing CO2 emissions is quickly becoming a C-suite imperative and storage will
not escape the scrutiny. Research shows that 81% of CIOs would consider
alternative data storage options that are more cost-effective and sustainable.
This will set the stage for new tape system deployments that not only can reduce
TCO by more than 70%, but can reduce CO2 emissions by 95% compared to
traditional HDD storage.

2. Return to Hybrid Cloud Strategies

Prior to COVID 19, the term “cloud repatriation” appeared often in the press as
it turned out that cloud was not a panacea for everything. But COVID 19
understandably created short-term storage strategies often resulting in a flight
to the cloud.

However, long-term thinking will favor hybrid cloud strategies where the best of
public cloud plus on-prem private cloud provides maximum flexibility and value.
This will especially apply to data accessibility, regulatory requirements, data
governance, and cybercrime risks including ransomware.

Today’s modern automated tape solutions will provide the advantages of cost,
scalability, reliability, and data protection to support the hybrid cloud model.

3. Storage Optimization Will Be Key to Data Growth Management

With the continuing digital transformation comes the zettabyte age of storage
where data to be stored globally will approach 6.0 zettabytes (ZB) in 2022,
according to a leading IT industry analyst.  Just one ZB would require 55
million 18.0 TB HDDs or 55 million 18.0 TB LTO-9 cartridges!

Storage optimization, that is to say, getting the right data, in the right
place, at the right time, and at the right cost will be critical to maintaining
competitive advantage.

Intelligent data management will be required, leveraging multiple tiers of
storage, active archives, and innovative S3-compatible archive solutions for
object storage.  Nowhere will this be more apparent than in digital preservation
and high-performance computing environments with a simple need to offload
expensive object storage to cost-effective tape systems using an S3-compatible
API.

4. Continuing Rise of Ransomware

It has been said that ransomware is only in “its infancy” and it’s been said
many more times, an attack is not a matter of “if” but “when.”  The FBI and CISA
have weighed in with this advice:

“Backup your data, system images, and configurations, test your backups, and
keep backups offline.”

As ransomware hackers mature in sophistication (and profits), online backups are
increasingly being targeted to hamper recovery efforts, including cloud-based
backups connected to a network. As a result, the value of affordable, removable,
and highly-portable tape will only increase, providing true air gap protection
(meaning offline, offsite backups in a secure location).

5. Video Surveillance Content Management

As we predicted last year, data tape has increasingly become a strategic option
in managing the ballooning volume of video content associated with video
surveillance applications.

Due to security reasons, regulatory compliance, or for future analytics,
retention volumes and periods will only increase making legacy HDD solutions
cost-prohibitive and unsustainable in terms of energy consumption. Look for
increasing adoption of cost-effective tier 2 tape in video retention workflows
in 2022.

Successfully emerging from the combined years of 2020 and 2021 will require
getting back to strategic, long-term planning. Given the relentless growth of
data, environmental concerns, and limited resources and budgets, today’s highly
advanced tape storage will play an increasingly vital role in 2022 and beyond.

 

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