IBM working on 120 petabyte data repository

Is there another company that plans to build a cloud service? Well we can’t confirm that, but it appears that IBM is building a data repository at IBM’s Almaden, California, and it is a data repository that is apparently 10 times bigger than any made before it.

It has been reported that this new data repository is being built by IBM engineers for an unnamed client, with a storage capacity of 120 petabytes that is comprised of 200,000 hard drives working together. For those wondering exactly how big 120 petabytes is, it should be able to store 24 billion MP3s that average about 5MB per MP3.

One of potential problems that IBM’s engineers face is implementing some sort of backup mechanism for those times when bits of data are dying, or when a hard drive fails. It’s been reported that data facilities are apparently bad for the environment due to the amount of power required to keep them running, so we’d hate to think how much power IBM’s monstrous data repository will be eating!