Tape Ark upcycles data in the cloud

Accelerating global data migration

Equinix provided Tape Ark with secure and scalable digital infrastructure to process data anywhere in the world while staying compliant with data sovereignty regulations. 

Global expansion complicates data sovereignty 

Tape Ark, headquartered in Perth, Australia, helps companies extract data stored on magnetic tapes and migrates that data into the cloud. Using proprietary tape-to-cloud ingest technologies, it is committed to liberating the world’s largest collections of data from tape—which has been used as a data storage medium for 40 years. 

The company has a diverse range of clients—from Hollywood studios and museums undertaking critical data archival projects to organizations involved in space exploration, medical diagnostics, as well as government organizations performing weather analyses. Tape Ark makes archival content accessible to modern technology like AI and machine learning to gain fresh insights from the data. The content liberated provides rich and in-depth data that forms the core of predictive analytics models. 

As its business becomes global, Tape Ark encounters data sovereignty regulations that have emerged in various countries designed to protect data created in specific geographies from being moved or migrated outside of the respective borders. Specifically, one mining customer in Canada had tens of petabytes of data that could not leave the country, and Tape Ark had to bring a mass tape ingest point to Montreal to deliver the project. 

Data sovereignty laws and the protection of content geographically (such as GDPR regulations) have been largely behind Tape Ark’s push to build ingest points in the most suitable locations to meet legislative and client needs. 

This means Tape Ark must establish a local presence in countries where it wants to operate. However, building its own data center would have taken a long time, entailed a huge investment and slowed down the company’s expansion overseas. 

Furthermore, Tape Ark needed data centers that not only can deliver high bandwidth and seamless cloud interconnection—but most importantly, have the highest levels of security and ISO certifications, so that its customers are ensured that their data is being processed and ingested in a safe and secure environment. 

Building for scale 

Tape Ark is solving industrial-scale data storage challenges through innovation and ingenuity. To do its job well, the company needs scale, and Equinix fits the bill for what it has in mind. 

Tape Ark is solving industrial-scale data storage challenges through innovation and ingenuity. To do its job well, the company needs scale, and Equinix fits the bill for what it has in mind. Currently, Tape Ark is leveraging Equinix Fabric® as well as the Equinix data center in Montreal, to connect directly to public cloud and major hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Equinix Fabric quickly and easily interconnects physical and virtual digital infrastructure. It can be deployed on demand via API connections for automated provisioning—simplifying interconnections to thousands of service providers. Since the network bypasses the public internet, it reduces security threats and attack surface. 

Speed and efficiency: Better together 

Meanwhile, with Equinix’s flexible space options, Tape Ark can quickly build a secure environment for barcoding and processing of tape media in close proximity to its data center and partners. 

With data and applications kept in the same Equinix location, there is no speed or performance issue in moving large volumes of data. Direct access to the digital ecosystems also enables new opportunities and new marketplaces for customer collaboration and partnerships. 

As Equinix owns and operates a network of 281 data centers located in 77 major metros in 36 countries, companies like Tape Ark can expand and replicate their services quickly and efficiently. 

The new solutions mean that Tape Ark can quickly expand business operations globally while staying compliant with strict security and data sovereignty requirements across different countries by leveraging Equinix’s industry-leading digital infrastructure. 

Tape Ark gains the flexibility, scalability and global reach to liberate the world’s largest collections of legacy data—unlocking their full potential. It achieves a throughput of over 1 PB a day with no downtime. The company plans to ingest hundreds of petabytes of data in the years ahead. 

Benefits

Significant cost savings on physical infrastructure 

Tape Ark can now operate in a new location without investing in physical infrastructure. It plans to deploy in more than 10 Equinix data centers around the world, making its services available to companies big and small that want to retrieve, remaster and reuse their valuable data collections. 

Faster time to value with seamless cloud access 

Tape Ark can power its tape-to-cloud migration services and start moving data within minutes to a wide array of cloud providers. Equinix allows Tape Ark to connect directly to the hyperscalers instead of using what might otherwise be a 186-mile (300-kilometer) cable with multiple hops. This means Tape Ark can bypass external internet hubs and transmit data into the customer’s chosen cloud faster and more efficiently. 

Compliant environment gains customer trust 

Tape Ark can leverage the security and ISO certifications Equinix maintains that assure customers that their data is being ingested in a safe and secure environment that is locally maintained in compliance with local data sovereignty regulations.