TIMG: Tape is around for the long term

While the advance of cloud backup and archival services are often foretold to bring the days of tape media to an end, those days haven't arrived yet. Many businesses are still reliant on tape services and the partners who offer them.

Aussie data management services provider TIMG's product team leader Danny Jeong told CRN a little about the company's tape products and services.

What tape brands and attached services do you specialise in?

Our main two tape vendors are HP and Fujifilm. TIMG specialises in secure offsite tape storage and the management of information at all stages of its lifecycle. This includes the migration, duplication and destruction of media.

When did your company first get involved in this area?

TIMG name was established in 2012, formed out of Databank which was created in 1999. Since our then, we have grown to store more than 2.5 million tapes for 6000 clients across Australia and New Zealand, and opened up the eBusiness world.

What certifications do you have that apply to tape and backup services?

We are committed to continuous improvement in service and solutions as demonstrated by our compliance standards: ISO 9001 QMS, ISO14001 EMS, ISO27001 ISM, AS/NZS 4801, ISO 18001 and PCIDSS. These standards are compliant with the highest Australian and international information management standards.

Which distributor do you use?

We use Dicker Data. They are the leading distributor in Australia with over 40 years of experience. Their knowledge of the industry allows them to tailor solutions to suit our clients' needs.

Have you heard about any cool/interesting development in the backup space recently? 

As a platinum Veeam cloud & service provider partner, the new versions of the Veeam Availability Console and Orchestrator are very exciting. These developments make Veeam easier to use and allow users to manage their Veeam rental usage reporting all in one place.

Can you tell us about a recent tape or backup deployment you have done?

A client didn’t have the hardware or human resources to complete a data recovery project. TIMG was able to deploy multiple MSL 4048 libraries to accommodate hundreds of tapes and parallel restores and were able to quickly recover their data.

What is driving customers' tape projects?

Tape is a cost-effective backup solution for long term archival data. Customers are realising that this is the best value for money and the most secure way of storing data in the long term.

Tape is…? 

Around for the long term. It remains the most cost-effective and durable method of long-term data storage. TIMG implements an off-site tape archive layer for our Cloud Backup clients who are looking to remove tape infrastructure but still want the benefits that tape storage offers.