IBM has introduced mainframe tape systems which it claims will help make data centres more energy efficient and better able to withstand disasters. 

The enhanced IBM Virtualisation Engine TS7740 for IBM mainframes is designed to automatically duplicate tape data across three data centre sites with its Three Site Grid Configuration, helping maintain availability in the event of a disaster.

This capability is designed to enable a virtual tape grid computing environment that allows data to reside on TS7740s at three different sites while being easily tracked and accessed when needed.

Other features include on-demand performance and cache capacity increments that allow the TS7740 to be tailored to help address customer-specific performance and capacity needs.

There is also a copy export function designed to allow export of data from a standalone or grid TS7740 for disaster recovery usage.