Even though IBM doesn’t believe in the concept – at least when it’s marketed by StorageTek – the customer is (sometimes) king, and so IBM is coming down to the wire with an automated tape library – as it said it would in June. It turns out that the West German partner on the development (CI No 1,201) is Haushahn GmbH of Stuttgart. And according to Computer Systems News, the automated tape library is likely to bring StorageTek $550m of business this year, and IBM doesn’t like to see that kind of business going to a competitor when it is not even in the market itself. The new library is expected to be offered as a Request Price Quotation item, and while it may be announced any day now, is not expected to ship for many months after the announcement. And some see the move as a two-edged sword for IBM, since it will legitimise the concept and thus likely benefit StorageTek.