IBM TS2280 Tape Drive

The TS2280 drive boasts an uncompressed data transfer rate of up to 300 MBps (up to 750 MBps with 2.5:1 compression) with 6 Gbps SAS interface connectivity.

IBM Spectrum Archive™ helps simplify TS2280 access and management by enabling text-based file tagging, for more intuitive searches of drive content. IBM Spectrum Archive supports the tape-oriented LTFS and provides a GUI to the tape drive’s contents. These features help make tape-based data as easy to find and access as disk- or flash-based data. By making tape easy and intuitive, Spectrum Archive LTFS opens the door to new uses and applications for LTO Ultrium tape.

The TS2280 6 Gbps SAS interface enables it to connect to a wide spectrum of open-system servers. For flexible network integration, this compact external drive offers both two SAS ports and one Ethernet port, and can fit side-by side on a 19-inch rack shelf or used in standalone configuration.

IBM Spectrum Archive creates an efficient “data footprint” that dynamically stores every bit of data at the optimal cost, helping maximize performance and ensuring security. IBM Spectrum Archive enables storage of digital assets for the long term, so assets can be referenced and monetized for years to come.

The LTO Ultrium 8 provides partitioning support, which, in conjunction with IBM Spectrum Archive, provides users with file-level access to tape data. This support helps users quickly locate and update information.

LTFS tape drives are designed to be interchangeable among compatible LTO tape drives and supported operating systems, so, administrators will not have to worry about hardware and software compatibility. With LTFS managers can quickly access, store or archive files on Ultrium 8 tape and transport files to another TS2280 and from different locations in a very easy-to-use format.

The LTO Ultrium 8 technology is also designed to natively support data encryption, with core hardware encryption and decryption capabilities resident in the LTO Ultrium 8 tape drive itself.

TS2280 Tape Drive supports the LTO Consortium compressed specification for LTO Ultrium 8, offering up to 30 TB of data storage per cartridge (12 TB native), twice the compressed capacity of the previous LTO Ultrium 7 cartridges. In addition to reading and writing to LTO Ultrium 8 tape cartridges, TS2280 can read and write to LTO Ultrium 7 cartridges. TS2280 supports the self-describing features of LTO tape cartridges for operational simplicity.