Iron Mountain Adds Cloud Data Management

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Iron Mountain Inc., the data backup vendor, this week rolled out a cloud storage platform offering enterprises data protection and recovery capabilities. The hybrid data management scheme combines cloud storage with the ability to manage policies governing data access while accelerating the migration of ever-larger data sets to the cloud.

Among the goals, the Boston-based vendor (NYSE: IRM) said Tuesday (Sept. 12), is getting a handle on exploding data growth while managing legacy IT infrastructure used to store and protect sensitive data. Hence, the storage specialist is adding a cloud services option to its data management framework that includes orchestration and automation tools for managing “data sprawl.”

The hybrid data management approach focuses on securing data in motion along with the growing volumes and new data types ranging from medical imaging to surveillance videos. The cloud option addresses enterprise issues such as what to keep and where to store data to facilitate easy yet secure access.

Along with data security and protection features as well as accessibility based on business requirements, the hybrid approach also includes “data shuttle” feature that expands the vendor’s existing data migration services to accelerate the onboarding of customer data to Iron Mountain’s cloud platform.

The storage vendor is betting that growing data management requirements fueled by machine learning and other technologies such as the Internet of Things will create greater demand for traditional data archiving augmented by cloud storage.

Data integration specialists note that migrating data to the cloud can be onerous. Completing the task with in-house resources requires skilled programmers who can connect datacenter and cloud technologies. That approach is seen as time consuming, error-prone and expensive.

Data migration and management efforts also can be complicated by the reality that many programmers focus on either legacy IT or the cloud, but generally not both. Hence, few possess the expertise to connect the two storage options.

Companies like Iron Mountain are attempting to fill the void with new data management tools.

The shift to cloud storage and data management follows several recent moves designed to boost the company’s datacenter infrastructure. Iron Mountain, which operates datacenters in three states, announced a 15-year wind power purchasing agreement in April that will supply 25 megawatts from a wind farm in Ringer Hill, Pa. The agreement shifts all the company’s datacenter power requirements to renewable energy sources.

Along with the Pennsylvania wind farm, the company also has signed a purchase agreement at the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Wind Farm in Texas and has invested in solar projects in the U.S. and Canada.

In July, Iron Mountain announced the acquisition of a Denver area datacenter for $128 million, adding more than 9 megawatts of datacenter capacity in preparation for its cloud shift.

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