IBM TS4500 at a glance
The IBM TS4500 is a high-density enterprise tape library built for large backup, archive and cloud environments. It scales from a single base frame to 18 frames, mixes LTO and IBM 3592 enterprise drives, and supports LTO-10 drives (available from June 2025) alongside LTO-9.
| Specification | IBM TS4500 |
|---|---|
| Frames | 1 base frame plus up to 17 expansion frames |
| Drives | Up to 16 per frame, up to 128 per library |
| LTO cartridge slots | Up to 23,170 per library |
| Drive types | LTO Ultrium (55-series frames) and IBM 3592 TS11xx (25-series frames), mixed frame by frame |
| Native capacity with LTO-10 | Hundreds of petabytes in a single library (30 TB per slot) |
| Partitioning | Advanced Library Management System (ALMS) logical libraries |
| Security | Drive encryption with IBM key management, WORM media |
| Availability | Dual accessors, automatic control-path and data-path failover, policy-based media verification |
Source: IBM TS4500 documentation. Configurations vary by frame type and release — ask us for current figures.
Who is the TS4500 for?
- Enterprises and service providers storing many petabytes of backup and archive data.
- Research, HPC and media organisations with fast-growing archives.
- Organisations consolidating several smaller libraries into one, using logical partitions.
Alternatives
For smaller estates, a modular library such as the Qualstar Q80 or Q40 often gives a lower entry cost. See all LTO tape libraries or our LTO-10 tape library guide.
Get an IBM TS4500 quote
New libraries, drive and frame upgrades, LTO-10 sleds and media — sized and quoted by our specialists.