IBM Withdrawing Maintenance Support for 3490e Magnetic Tape System

The IBM 3490 drive celebrates 15 years in the market in February 2006

Throughout this time it has proved itself as a solid and reliable performer in tape technology. It is still being used widely in a range of settings with customers running legacy systems and also in the geo-seismic industry.

The demand for these drives remains high. However, due to the age of the equipment, they are getting harder to source. Prior to 2000 you could pay a few thousand dollars per transport of these drives, while today you will expect to pay around $5,000.

With IBM beginning to withdraw maintenance support for some of these drives, including the 3490 F drives, it would appear that the writing is on the wall for the future of this technology.

It will be worthwhile exploring your tape options and considering the 3590 tape technology, which will provide greater performance at a similar price point.

UPDATE: The IBM TotalStorage 3590 Enterprise Tape Drive has been replaced by the IBM System Storage TS1120 Tape Drive