Grand old data storage firm Iron Mountain Inc. has just launched a new cloud archive service that brings it up to speed with more youthful rivals like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which have offered a similar service for some time already.

Iron Mountain bills its Cloud Archive as a cost-efficient data repository for companies that need to preserve and protect their data long-term for compliance, legal or value-creation purposes. It’s similar to the cloud archive services offered by the likes of AWS, Microsoft, IBM, Google and others, with the major difference being that data is stored at Iron Mountain’s impenetrable underground facility located at Boyers, Pennsylvania. Iron Mountain built its reputation for ultra-secure storage thanks to its smattering of super-secure underground storage caverns located around the world, including one in Los Angeles that holds the original prints of numerous old Hollywood movies.

Iron Mountain says its Cloud Archive service offers “near-infinite” scalability as the data volume grows. The service is offered on a pay-as-you-use model, it said. Cloud Archive is based on EMC Corp.’s multipurpose Elastic Cloud Storage platform, and offers cost-effective, rapid and anytime/anywhere access together with enterprise-class service-level agreements (SLAs).

Data movement to and from Iron Mountain Cloud Archive is handled in the open platform using ECS that works natively with Amazon S3 API, OpenStack SWIFT, CAS, Atmos and several cloud gateways, including EMC CloudBoost, CloudArray and Isilon Cloud Pools, Nasuni, Panzura, Seven10 and CTERA.

Other features include end-to-end information management, disaster recovery and data preservation, Iron Mountain said.

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