The Codex of Business Writing Software for Real-World Solutions 2.pptx
IBM LTO products: a guide for the midmarket whitepaper
1. IBM Systems and Technology Group
September 2009
IBM LTO products: a guide for the
midmarket
2. IBM LTO products: a guide for the midmarket
Page 2
Introduction
Contents While disk storage has evolved greatly over the years, tape continues to be an
integral part of the storage hierarchy. For example, IBM studies show that our
2 Introduction clients store from four to 15 times more data on tape than disk. The reasons
3 What are the benefits of LTO in provide substantiation for why tape storage is so popular. Compared to disk
general and IBM LTO in particular? storage, tape is:
5 The IBM difference
9 IBM, LTO and the midmarket
• Cost-effective
11 IBM financing for your midmarket
• Uses less energy
needs
• Is removable and portable
12 Overview of IBM LTO tape storage
• Can hold high volumes of data
products
• Has a long life, and
18 Environmental considerations
• Is ideally suited for information availability, retention, security and compliance
20 Why IBM storage solutions?
Faced with an information explosion that means the need for more and affordable
21 Conclusion
storage, IT managers, trying to optimize space, storage and people can find IBM
21 For more information
tape storage the solution to many of your problems. The following information
will help you understand the advantages of choosing IBM as your vendor for
Linear Tape-Open (LTO) storage products.
3. IBM LTO products: a guide for the midmarket
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What are the benefits of LTO in general and IBM LTO in particular?
IBM LTO technology has evolved through four generations, with two more
planned. LTO is an open tape architecture developed by a consortium of three
world-class storage producers, including IBM..
LTO solutions have many advantages over other types of storage. For example,
LTO provides highly scalable tape backup that accommodates a wide range of
system formats. It easily integrates into current operating environments, and our
roadmap protects your investment today and in the future. The LTO Ultrium
format offers exceptional investment protection. As a truly open tape solution,
the Ultrium format has gained widespread industry acceptance from leading tape
drive, media, and automation companies. Simplified product planning means
faster cycle time for new features
IBM offers a complete family of solutions comprising tape drives and small-
medium- and large tape automation solutions that use the Ultrium ultra-
high-capacity recording format. This family delivers exceptional performance,
widespread availability, and a lower-price data storage solution:
• High reliability levels. When you entrust your data to a storage medium, you
want the very highest levels of reliability. For more than 55 years — longer than
any other major storage vendor — IBM has been leading the way in tape storage
technology
• High capacity. Up to 1.6 TB compressed or 800 GB of native capacity data can fit
on a single compact cartridge
• High data transfer rate. Sustained data transfer rates of up to 120 MB/second are
supported in the IBM LTO 4 generation
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Our LTO Ultrium solutions are designed to grow with your needs, across
platforms and operating systems, and in fact, IBM has invented much of today’s
most advanced storage technology Did you know that:
• IBM introduced the first tape drive in 1952 and the first disk drive in 1956. The
IBM LTO-based Ultrium format tape drives are simply the latest IBM storage
developments to leverage this unparalleled track record of innovation and
expertise.
• The IBM Ultrium format technology leverages earlier IBM innovations as
building blocks for enhancement.
• The dramatic increases in linear and track density, and the use of multi-
track, linear-serpentine recording are natural extensions of existing IBM tape
technologies.
• The enhancements in tape track and magneto-resistive (MR) head technology
leverage the high number of concurrent channels and track density characteristics
of the LTO specifications.
• The error correction code (ECC) used in the IBM Ultrium tape products is
powerful enough to ensure reliable recovery of data even with the loss of a track
or head. The high efficiency ECC is based on the same architecture as existing
IBM tape technologies
• When you choose IBM, you have immediate access to an end-to-end solution
whatever the requirement. From individual tape drives to ultra-scalable libraries
to disk, IBM has a solution for your needs.
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The IBM difference
IBM has superior quality and reliability specifications for its media, drives and
automation. For example, “IBM LTO-4 media specifications go well beyond
standard LTO specifications. Here are some examples of the quality and
reliability that we build into our products.
IBM media is built to rigorous IBM specifications
IBM media undergoes far more testing than any other tape media, even non-IBM
branded media manufactured in the same plant.
• As an example, IBM Media undergoes Environmental Durability Tests at all
“ five corners” of the temperature and humidity extremes. It is our belief that only
IBM puts media through its entire life cycle (300 complete full file passes*) at
each point (Warm/Wet, Hot/Wet, Hot/Dry, Cold/Dry and Cold/Wet). Many other
vendors may take cartridge samples through each extreme point, but may not put
the cartridge through its entire life cycle at each data point.
• Commonality of Format does not imply commoditization. LTO Consortium
Certification is not a statement of quality. Certification only promises
interchangeability and capacity specification at a minimum quality. IBM
has superior quality and reliability specifications for its media, drives and
automation. For example, IBM LTO4 media specifications go well beyond
standard LTO specifications by ensuring that the media will be capable of
adhering to and be covered by warranty to the following specifications:
– 300 full file passes
– 1 million head passes
– 20,000 short section durability passes at all environments
– 20,000 load/unload cycles
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(Note: Full File Pass is a process that fills an entire tape. A full file pass of an
IBM LTO4 cartridge requires sixteen tracks to be written from one end of tape
to the other and repeating this process 56 times to completely fill the 800 GB
cartridge. Other vendors may consider a full file pass to be simply one “round
trip” from beginning of tape to end of tape and back. There are 28 “round trips”
in a full file pass.
• IBM Media is used as the Master Standard Reference Tape at the Measurement
Assurance Corporation, the third party that performs compliance testing for the
LTO consortium. The Master Standard Reference Tape is the tape media that all
other vendors are compared against. Being chosen as the MSRT is an indication
of predictability and consistency from cartridge to cartridge so that the standard
does not change. IBM has been the MSRT supplier for all four LTO generations.
• IBM has the most extensive suite of stress tests built over years of tape media
development for stress testing media in real and extreme customer environments.
While the content of this test suite is proprietary, the history and experience we
have in continuing to develop our testing methods means we have discovered how
to solve problems that other vendors haven’t even discovered are problems.
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IBM Media is designed for increased reliability, performance, stability
and durability
• The IBM LTO cartridge uses an ultra-thin dual coating system which provides
increased durability and stability. Ensuring an ultra-thin magnetic layer is
critical to the life of a cartridge, as the higher areal density media requires a very
low background signal noise to ensure that data, once written, will not become
altered due to signal-to-noise loss. This Dual Coat Process was developed by our
media manufacturing partner Fujifilm, and this thin magnetic coat, as a result,
delivers long shelf life and durability.
• The IBM LTO cartridge has LTO CM (cartridge memory) chip. During the media
(unload/load) cycles, the CM 8KB memory chip uses a radio frequency interface
that eliminates any need for a physical power or signal connection between the
cartridge and the drive. It holds information about data location, usage/error
logs, and user areas. It provides a quick reference to the cartridge’s index and
usage information, facilitates problem diagnosis and helps with failure prediction,
minimizes load time, and provides fast access to and high-speed restoration from
files and data sets regardless of their location on the tape cartridge.
• Includes improved PEN substrate which is very stable under changing
environmental conditions
• Uses dual servo tracks for extremely fine placement control and redundancy in
the event of tape damage
• Uses advanced slitting technology
• Results in maximum edge quality, ensuring superior reliability, enhanced
performance and reduced debris
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IBM Drives and IBM Media are designed and developed together
One cannot overstate the significance in building a cartridge to work with a
particular drive, or a drive with a particular cartridge. And, IBM drives are found
in tape libraries from SUN (STK), Dell, ADIC and many others.
• IBM LTO Tape drives employ specific patented technologies, which further
enhance the capabilities of IBM’s LTO media when used together:
– Patented Magneto Resistive flat lapped head design – Helps reduce tape wear
by decreasing the tape to head contact found in typical tape drives. IBM
LTO tape is kept in place with minimal friction using normal air pressure to
keep the tape in proper contact with the head read and writes elements. This
head design helps improve performance, accuracy and reliability of reads and
writes and helps to reduce tape media and drive head wear.
– Patented surface control guiding system – Allows for less debris generation
and increased performance. The flat lapped heads and surface control
guidance system help contribute to overall high data integrity in the IBM LTO
tape drives.
– Grooved Roller Surface Control Guiding – Helps to stabilize the lateral
movement of tape across the head, reducing the amount of re-reads or writes
that might occur if the tape path weren’t so stable. The two inner most rollers
are actually grooved, which causes air to “bleed-out” from underneath the
surface of the tape, allowing more precise guiding of the tape without having
to rely upon edge guiding like done on many other systems.
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IBM, LTO and the midmarket
With smaller, more agile rivals on one side and larger, more powerful ones on
the other, medium companies such as yours must respond rapidly in a changing,
competitive environment. Current market data shows that medium businesses
face an array of challenges specific to their unique position in the marketplace.
Security issues, for example, remain a top priority, while the need for real-world
business intelligence has become a top driver of new technology implementation.
Companies must ensure product and services differentiation to compete in an
ever-changing marketplace and be nimble enough to adapt to those changes.
Other market trends shaping the business landscape, such as information
on demand or virtualization solutions, are also on the medium company’s
radar — although many businesses lack the resources to move in those directions
on their own.
Medium-sized companies need to compete at the highest level, maintain
business models and support systems flexible enough to prioritize and capture
the most valuable opportunities — and do all this with fewer resources than larger
enterprises. Also, organizations worldwide are required by law to store, manage
and safeguard more of their data than even before. Meeting these goals requires
some creativity and the right technology partner. More than ever, medium
companies are recognizing the advantage of technology solutions to help them
win in the marketplace.
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IBM has renewed its commitment to addressing the needs of midsize businesses
(those with 100 to 1000 employees). We know that factors such as simplicity,
scalability and cost are critical considerations for smaller enterprises. That’s why
IBM offerings for midsize business conform to a set of strict requirements that
helps ensure usability, easy acquisition and implementation, flexibility and faster
return on investment.
For the majority of midsize businesses, the term “enterprise IT” brings to mind
two words: expensive and complex. But IBM LTO solutions for midsize businesses
are geared to ensuring that companies like yours can have all the power,
performance, security and reliability they need with a variety of products that
help meet data back up and restore needs — at an affordable cost, and with plenty
of room to grow.
IBM has a complete portfolio of solutions for midsize businesses that include
hardware, software, middleware, services and financing options.
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IBM financing for your midmarket needs
Highlights IBM Global Financing, the lending and leasing business segment of IBM, has
designed financing options that can help clients in the midmarket defer upfront
Did you know? The tale of the tape
investment costs for IBM hardware, software and services, thereby conserving
IBM tape storage has many reasons for
cash for other more pressing business priorities. IBM Financing Advantage
usage, whether in general or specific
offers fast and simple financing at competitive rates, with simplified Web-based
to LTO. What makes LTO the right fit
processes to deliver credit, price and contracts in less than one hour.
and the ideal fit is listed here:
For more information about IBM Global Financing’s offering for financing the
Energy consumption
technology needs of midsize companies, visit IBM’s medium business financing
A study of a midsize business storage
solutions site.
scenario found that a disk system can
cost 290 times more in power and
cooling than a tape system.1 As a rule,
tape drives and libraries consume far
less energy than disk drives and bays,
and tape cartridges require no energy
at all when stored.
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Overview of IBM LTO tape storage products
Highlights The following are descriptions of LTO Ultrium tape drives, libraries and
autoloaders in our LTO portfolio.
Price
IBM System Storage TS2240 Tape Drive Express Model
A study of a midsize business storage
scenario found that a disk system
The IBM System Storage TS2240 Tape Drive Express Model is an external
could cost 23 times more in total cost
drive incorporating the fourth generation of IBM LTO technology in a half-high
than a tape system. 2 Hardware, energy
form factor. This is an external stand-alone or rack-mountable unit, similar to
consumption and floor space are
previous models of the TS2230 and is the entry point for the IBM Ultrium tape
typically lower with tape.
product family. The TS2240 supports encryption of data with a 3 Gbps SAS
connection. In addition, the TS2240 can read and write LTO Ultrium 3 Data
The low cost per GB of tape storage is
Cartridges and read LTO Ultrium 2 Data Cartridges. The TS2240 Tape Drive
approximately four cents per GB for an
provides an excellent migration path from digital linear tape (DLT or SDLT),
LTO-4 cartridge,3 and that facilitates
1/4-in., 4 mm, or 8 mm tape drives.
keeping multiple copies of the data for
backup, recovery and archiving Cartridge capacity 800 GB native physical capacity
purposes. Interface 3 Gbps SAS
Max. drive data rate Up to 120 MB/sec native
Removable disk cartridges cost
approximately $1.45 per GB 4
Automated tape and virtual tape
IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive Express Model
libraries with advanced backup and
The IBM System Storage TS2340 Tape Drive Express Model is an external
archive management software reduce
drive incorporating the fourth generation of IBM LTO™ technology in a full high
or eliminate the need for IT staff,
form factor. This is an external stand-alone or rack-mountable unit, similar to
allowing “people costs” required for
previous models of the IBM 3580 and is the entry point for the IBM Ultrium
managing and maintaining disk- or
tape product family. The TS2340 supports encryption of data and offers a 3 Gbps
tape-based data protection solutions
SAS connection. In addition, the TS2340 can read and write LTO Ultrium 3
to be roughly the same.5
Data Cartridges and read LTO Ultrium 2 Data Cartridges.
Cartridge capacity 800 GB native physical capacity
Interface LVD SCSI, 3 Gbps SAS
Max. drive data rate Up to 120 MB/sec native
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IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader
Highlights The IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader is a single-drive, low profile
automated tape solution and the first entry automation solution for small- to mid-
Security
market tape environments. The TS2900 leverages the technology of IBM half-
Encryption of data can safeguard
high LTO tape drives to help create a high-capacity tape storage solution suited
information unwittingly lost or
for handling backup and archival data storage for the Windows®, Linux and
physically stolen. IBM tape drive
other open system environments.
encryption is included in LTO
generation 4 at no additional cost. Number of Drives 1
IBM tape drive encryption was first to Maximum Number of Cartridges 9
market and it has been securing Maximum System Capacity 7.2 TB Native; 14.4 TB with 2:1
customer’s information on tape (2:1 Compression) compression
since 2007. Supported Platforms IBM Power™ Systems, IBM
System x™, Intel® and other
The impact of hardware encryption on open systems server platforms.
tape LTO drive performance is
expected to be typically less than one
percent.6
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IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape Library Express Model
Highlights The IBM TS3100 Tape Library Express Model is well–suited for handling
backup, save and restore and archival data–storage needs for small to medium–
Reliability
size environments. With one Ultrium Full-High or up to two Ultrium Half–High
Disaster recovery best practices
tape drives and 24 tape cartridge capacity, the IBM TS3100 model is designed
dictates that a copy of data be stored
to leverage LTO technology to help cost-effectively handle growing storage
at an offsite location.7 Tape is both
requirements.
removable and transportable for
offsite storage. • Designed to support cost-effective backup, save and restore and archival storage
in sequential or random access mode with a standard bar-code reader
LTO drives are specified with a Mean- • IBM Ultrium 4 technology is designed to support encryption of data with 3 Gbps
SAS and continues to support write-once, read-many (WORM) operations
Time-Between-Failure rate (MTBF) of
250,000 hours at 100% duty cycle. This • Designed to offer outstanding capacity, performance and reliability for midrange
and network tape–storage environments in a 2U form factor with 24 data
metric is 700 percent more than the
cartridge slots and a mail slot
MTBF of tape technologies created a
decade ago. * • Remote library management through a standard Web interface supports flexibility
and greater administrative control of storage operations
The latest LTO-4 Ultrium tape drives
announced in early 2007 hold eight Number of Drives 1 Full High or
times the capacity of the first LTO tape 1-2 Half High
drive launched in 2000: up to 1.6TBs of Maximum Number of Cartridges 24
compressed data, IBM has 38.4 TB
Maximum System Capacity
successfully tested and projected to (2:1 Compression)
enable the eight-terabyte (TB) tape Supported Platforms IBM System p™, IBM System i™,
cartridge of the future. Eight TBs of IBM System x™ and other open
data is equivalent to the text in eight systems
million books, which would require 57
miles of bookshelves. All in a single
cartridge! Capacities are a result of lab
tests and are subject to change. *
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IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Express Model
The IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Express Model is designed for
backup, save and restore, and archival data-storage needs for small to medium-size
environments. The TS3200 is an external 4U standalone or rack-mountable unit
that incorporates up to two Full High Ultrium 4 or Ultrium 3 tape drives or up to
four Half High Ultrium 4 or Ultrium 3 tape drives and 48 tape cartridge slots.
• Designed to support cost-effective backup, save and restore and archival storage
in sequential or random access mode with a standard bar code reader
• IBM Ultrium 4 technology is designed to support encryption of data with 3 Gbps
SAS and continues to support WORM operations
• Designed to offer outstanding capacity, performance and reliability for midrange
and network tape-storage environments in a 4U form factor with 48 data
cartridge slots and a mail slot
• Remote library management through a standard Web interface supports flexibility
and greater administrative control of storage operations
Number of Drives Up to 2 Full High tape drives
Up to 4 Half High tape drives
Maximum Number of Cartridges 48 data cartridges
Maximum System Capacity 76.8 TB compressed, Up to 38.4
(2:1 Compression) TB native
Supported Platforms System i™, System p™, System
x™, System z™, HP, Sun, UNIX®
and Windows® servers
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IBM System Storage TS3310 Tape Library
The IBM System Storage TS3310 Tape Library is a modular, scalable tape library
designed to address the tape storage needs of rapidly growing companies who
find themselves space and resource constrained with tape backup and other tape
applications.
Designed around a 5U high modular base library unit, the TS3310 is designed
to scale vertically with expansion for LTO tape cartridges, drives and redundant
power supplies.
The base library module, model L5B, is the entry point for the product family.
It contains all of the necessary robotics and intelligence to manage the 5U high
library system, which houses up to 41 cartridges (35 storage slots and 6 Input/
Output slots) and two LTO generation 4 and/or generation 3 tape drives.
The TS3310 model L5B can be expanded with the addition of expansion units,
the model E9U.
Number of Drives Up to 18 (max 2 drives for the base
Model L5B library and 4 drives in
each expansion unit Model E9U)
Maximum Number of Base Model L5B: 35 storage and 6
Cartridges I/O.
Expansion module, Model E9U: 92
storage or 80 storage and 12 I/O
Maximum System Capacity Over 644.8 TB in a 41U configuration
(2:1 Compression) or 56 TB in a Model L5B base library
Supported Platforms OS/400® V5R2, V5R3, or later; AIX
5L™ V5.1, V5.2, V5.3, or later; Sun
Solaris 8 and 9; Microsoft® Windows®
2000; Microsoft Windows 2003; HP-
UX 11.0, HP-UX 11.11 and HP-UX
11.232; Linux distributions: Red Hat
Enterprise Linux version 4; SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 9
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IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library
The IBM System Storage TS3500 Tape Library (TS3500 tape library) combines
IBM automation and drive technology to provide a highly scalable, automated
tape library for IBM System z and open systems backup and archive in midrange
to enterprise environments.
Number of Drives 12 per frame (192 per library)
Maximum Number of Cartridges 20,087 LTO,
Maximum System Capacity 32.1 PB LTO at 2:1
(2:1 Compression) compression,
Supported Platforms IBM AIX®; IBM OS/400®; IBM
i; Windows® 2000; Windows
Server® 2003; Linux; Sun
Solaris; and HP-UX. IBM z/
OS® (only with 3592 drives and
additional hardware)
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Environmental considerations
IBM is committed to environmental leadership in all of its business activities,
from its operations to the design of its products and use of its technology. IBM’s
corporate policy on environmental affairs, first issued in 1971, is supported by
the company’s global environmental management system. This is a key element
of IBM efforts to achieve results consistent with environmental leadership and
ensures that the company is vigilant in protecting the environment across all
of its operations worldwide. Here are some examples of IBM “green” efforts and
recognition for them:
• Recently, IBM was named the top company for climate change strategy and
practices in a report released by the Ceres investor coalition. The report
analyzed climate change governance practices at 63 of the world’s largest retail,
pharmaceutical, technology, apparel and other consumer-facing companies.
• Between 1990 and 2007, IBM saved 4.6 billion kWh of electricity consumption,
avoided nearly 3.1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions (equal to 45 percent of
the company’s 1990 global CO2 emissions) and saved over $310 million through
its annual energy conservation actions alone.
• IBM’s procurement of renewable energy and RECs increased from 11 million kWh
in 2001 to 455 million kWh in 2007, which accounted for 8.5% of IBM’s total
2007 global electricity purchases.
• To further extend these achievements IBM set a “second generation” goal to
reduce CO2 emissions associated with IBM’s energy use by 12 percent between
2005 and 2012 through energy conservation, use of renewable energy and
funding RECs.
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IBM can help midsize organizations become more environmentally friendly
with a suite of offerings called Green IT solutions. These solutions, designed for
midmarket businesses, will help our clients to:
• Reduce operational and energy costs
• Make their IT environments more energy-efficient
• Control and manage their power consumption and usage
• Dispose of old, unwanted IT assets in an environmentally friendly manner.
For more information on environmental management at IBM, go to ibm.com/
ibm/environment/. For more information on IBM’s energy and environmental
solutions for a smarter planet, see ibm.com/ibm/green/index.shtml
20. IBM LTO products: a guide for the midmarket
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Why IBM storage solutions?
IBM Storage solutions provide the capabilities needed to help organizations
reduce cost and mitigate risks while managing continued information growth and
service level demands. Dynamic environments, such as Cloud Computing and
Service Oriented Architecture, require scalable, always on information services
delivered by a robust information infrastructure foundation.
Storage is as important to a dynamic infrastructure as servers and networks.
Because of the explosion of information in most data centers, storage can be
more challenging to tame than server resources, but the payoff can be worth the
effort. IBM Information Infrastructure solutions can play a critical role in projects
impacting resiliency, security, energy efficiency, virtualization, asset management,
and service management. IBM Information Infrastructure is an initiative that
helps clients meet the challenges of today’s information explosion by helping to
improve competencies in four critical areas:
• Information availability
• Information security
• Information retention
• Information compliance
IBM Information Infrastructure and System Storage solutions can help you
manage information growth more effectively, dramatically improve service levels,
lower costs, mitigate risks, and extract new intelligence for business insight.
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Conclusion
This white paper has examined the reasons that make IBM a top vendor of LTO
storage products. IBM offers superior quality and reliability specifications for
its media, drives and automation — IBM media is used as the Master Standard
Reference Tape in the industry. Finally, IBM uses an extensive suite of stress
tests built in over 55 years of tape media development. As a result, our products
offer performance and reliability that stand the test of time.
For more information
To learn more about IBM LTO tape storage products, please contact your IBM
marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following Web
sites:
ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/index.html
ibm.com/systems/storage/resource/pguide/index.html
ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/mkt_bpic_innovation_centers.html