IBM Power Offsite Data Protection That Fits The Way IBM i Shops Already Work

January 26, 2026 Don Gentile Steven Dickens

For decades, IBM Power systems have supported some of the most critical systems of record in the global economy. Banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, and government organizations all rely on IBM i environments for stability, data integrity, and predictable operations. These are not necessarily the world’s flashiest workloads, but they are essential for keeping the lights on, transactions flowing, and making sure the trains run on time.

Yet even in these well-managed environments, Offsite data protection remains a persistent challenge. Local backup and availability are rarely the issue. Most IBM Power shops have mature backup routines and, in many cases, high-availability solutions that protect against everyday disruptions. The production environment is steady. Offsite protection is where confidence gets tested. When it goes bump in the night, you need backup to work; it’s not optional. The gap appears when data needs to live somewhere else, offsite, securely, and recoverably. Many organizations recognize that their offsite posture could be stronger but have not found an approach that fits how their environments are actually run.

Simply put, the challenge is friction. Taking a backup is straightforward. Proving you can restore it somewhere else, under pressure, is the difference between a blip and your organization being front-page news. Traditional offsite approaches introduce tradeoffs that Power customers know well. Tape-based processes can be rigid and slow to recover. Tape is still perfectly respectable, right up until the moment you need it quickly. Secondary infrastructure adds capital and staffing costs. Customer-managed cloud solutions often require new skills, new tooling, and ongoing responsibility for something that is not viewed as a strategic differentiator. Cloud can reduce the hardware headache, but it has a habit of moving the pain elsewhere, usually into skills, security, and accountability.

“IBM Power shops trust their backups. What they don’t always trust is their ability to recover off-site, under pressure. That gap is becoming a resilience and governance problem, not just a technical one.”

FalconStor has spent more than two decades in the IBM Power ecosystem, engaging with customers, developing deep familiarity with IBM i, AIX, and Linux workloads through long-standing partnerships and production deployments in mission-critical environments. In other words, FalconStor is a trusted supplier. Its introduction of Habanero reflects a recognition that offsite data protection for Power Systems needs to be delivered differently. Both of us spent years at IBM, so we have seen firsthand how Power environments are built, operated, and protected when the business truly cannot afford downtime.

Delivered as a managed service, Habanero removes the concerns about cloud migration or a wholesale disaster recovery redesign. The goal is straightforward: simplify infrastructure decisions, reduce budget and planning burdens, and allow customers to consume offsite protection in a way that aligns with existing backup practices. In plain terms, it is an attempt to make offsite protection feel like a service you can rely on, rather than a project you inherit or, worse, becomes a career-defining moment.

At its core, Habanero integrates with how IBM i environments already perform backups. It is not intended to replace high-availability platforms, synchronous replication tools, or traditional backup software. Instead, it defines a new category: managed offsite cyber recovery for systems of record.

Customers do not need to change backup applications, schedules, or workflows. FalconStor provides and runs the underlying infrastructure, including a managed on-premises appliance and offsite services, enabling customers to establish secure Offsite copies without the need to deploy or manage hardware themselves. From the customer’s perspective, the service behaves as an extension of existing protection practices rather than a new architecture to implement and manage. That distinction matters in IBM i land, where “just change the process” is rarely the right answer.

This service-led approach addresses a long-standing accountability issue in offsite protection. In many customer-managed models, responsibility is split across platforms, tools, and providers. When problems arise, ownership becomes unclear. When multiple parties own pieces of the stack, recoverability can turn into a shared responsibility with no clear owner, which is never as comforting as it sounds on a slide. With Habanero, FalconStor assumes responsibility for the service end-to-end, simplifying both adoption and ongoing management.

Pricing is another area where friction has historically slowed decisions. Habanero is priced based on data under management, not by hardware configurations, storage locations, or consumption tiers. Customers pay a predictable subscription regardless of where data resides or how many copies are maintained. This removes the need for capacity planning exercises or cloud cost modeling, both of which can delay action in conservative environments. Habanero starts at $10 per terabyte per month with an annual commitment, covering both on-premises and Offsite copies without separate infrastructure charges. For the sorts of Power shops that prefer predictable outcomes over surprises, pricing clarity will matter.

Habanero is not positioned as a replacement for existing investments. IBM Power customers have spent years refining backup routines, BRMS workflows, VTL deployments, and high-availability strategies. Habanero is designed to complement these environments by adding a managed offsite layer while leaving daily protection workflows intact. Existing tools retain their value as offsite protection becomes simpler and more reliable. From a market perspective, this positioning aligns with how most IBM Power customers work today.

Read the HyperFRAME Research Brief examining why off-site protection remains a weak point in IBM Power environments – and what a simpler, managed model looks like.

Industry estimates consistently show that the majority of IBM i environments are not actively pursuing broad cloud adoption. Most are pragmatic, and they will move when the payoff is clear and the risk feels contained. That does not mean they are standing still. Cyber risk, regulatory scrutiny, and recoverability expectations continue to rise. The question many teams face is how to strengthen offsite protection without introducing complexity.

Importantly, Habanero’s model aligns well with partner-led delivery. Many Power customers rely on trusted IBM Business Partners and managed service providers for guidance and execution. In many IBM i environments, the partner relationship is more than a procurement review. It is a long-running trust agreement. Habanero can be resold by partners while FalconStor operates the infrastructure, enabling repeatable delivery without increasing partner burden. This approach allows partners to extend services while maintaining customer trust.

For IBM Power customers, the appeal of this approach is rooted in simplicity. Offsite data protection becomes something that can be implemented, budgeted, and trusted without becoming a new project. Disaster recovery readiness, compliance support, and cyber resilience improve as a result, without forcing teams to rethink how their environments are run. In our experience with Power environments, anything that improves recoverability without introducing drama is usually welcomed with open arms. And while Habanero’s initial focus is IBM i, the underlying architectural pattern – managed, immutable, offsite cyber recovery for systems of record – will extend to other mission-critical platforms over time.

To read the full HyperFRAME Research Brief with our analysis of the offsite protection gap and the emergence of FalconStor Habanero, click here.

Don Gentile, Analyst-in-Residence for Storage and Data Resiliency at HyperFRAME Research, leverages three decades of industry experience to create clear, differentiated narratives for complex enterprise infrastructure. He has shaped messaging, positioning, and global campaigns for major mission-critical and hybrid cloud platforms, connecting technology innovation with customer needs and market dynamics. Don’s practice at HyperFRAME covers AI data platforms, flash storage, SAN, HCI, SDS, hybrid cloud storage, Ceph/open source, cyber resiliency, and the integration of AI workloads across storage and compute.

Steven Dickens, CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research, is consistently ranked among the Top 3 Analysts by AR Insights. His expertise, spanning Open Source, Hybrid Cloud, and Mission-Critical Infrastructure, bridges the strategic imperatives of C-Suite executives with end-user needs. With senior leadership experience at Broadcom, HPE, and IBM, he has led multi-hundred-million dollar product initiatives. As a founding board member and former Chair of the Linux Foundation’s Open Mainframe Project, Steven continues to shape Open Source technology.

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