Is it Time to Wind Back(up) to Tape?

Over the past decade, many predicted the demise of tape backup. Yet, in the face of modern cyber threats, it's not just back, it’s proving essential. For some organisations, tape never left. For others, it’s fast becoming the most reliable option for long-term data protection and cyber resilience.

Recent attacks across the UK, including the crippling cyber breach of the British Library, have highlighted the vulnerabilities in current backup strategies. Too many businesses rely on disk-based solutions all hosted with a single cloud provider: production, disaster recovery, and backup, all in one place, all online. That’s not resilience, it’s a serious risk.

Tape Delivers What Modern Threats Demand: Air Gap Assurance

Unlike always-connected storage, tape creates a true physical air gap. It's offline. Untouchable. Immune to ransomware, remote intrusion, and accidental deletion. In today’s threat landscape, that air gap is the last line of defence and often the difference between recovery and total data loss.

While some solutions claim “immutability” through software controls, tape delivers it physically and indisputably. You simply cannot encrypt or delete what isn't connected.

Introducing IBM Diamondback: Modern Tape for the Modern Enterprise

Tape isn't what it used to be…….it’s far better. The IBM Diamondback Tape Library is a purpose-built, cyber-resilient backup platform designed to meet today’s security, performance, and sustainability needs:

• Small footprint, massive capacity: Store up to 69.5 PB of compressed data in a space as small as 8 square feet, using high-capacity LTO Ultrium cartridges.
• High-performance media: Each cartridge holds up to 45 TB of compressed data (18 TB native), ensuring scalable, long-term storage without spiralling costs.
• Security-rich architecture: Supports data encryption and Write Once, Read Many (WORM) media, ideal for compliance, audit trails, and protecting against tampering.
• Rapid deployment: From arrival on-site to power-up, more than 27 PB of secure storage can be deployed in under 30 minutes.
• File-level access: Retrieve data at the file level without the need for proprietary software, making Diamondback both secure and operationally efficient.

This is tape for organisations that don’t just want to back up data, they want to keep it safe.

The Limits of Virtual Tape

Virtual Tape Libraries (VTLs), especially for IBM i systems, were once seen as the future of backup. And they still have a role to play. But most VTLs are disk-based, always online, and ultimately exposed. Many lack immutability and air-gap capability, the very features modern threats demand.

As one industry expert commented:
“I still cringe when I hear that a customer’s production data, HA, DR, and backups all sit with the same cloud provider, all on disk. That’s not resilience. That’s a risk.”

The King Is Dead. Long Live the King.

Tape was never truly dethroned. It simply evolved behind the scenes, becoming smaller, faster, smarter, and infinitely more secure. With IBM Diamondback, tape is now positioned as the cornerstone of a modern cyber resilience strategy.

If your current backup plan doesn’t include a true offline copy, you're exposed. And in today’s environment, exposure is a luxury no business can afford.

Let Baby Blue Help You Build the Air Gap

At Baby Blue IT Consulting, we specialise in helping organisations protect what matters most by building tape-based backup strategies that are secure, scalable, and resilient.

From evaluating risk to deploying IBM Diamondback tape libraries, we’ll help you create the air gap your business needs to survive and recover from a cyber event.

📩 Contact us today to explore how air-gapped tape storage can be part of your data protection strategy before you wish it had been.