PBS broadcaster loses access to 50TB of data comprising 70 years of TV history after contracted cloud storage vendor goes defunct — public TV channel sues Iron Mountain data center, which hosts archival materials, to ensure preservation

Tom's Hardware ^ | 08/13/2026 | Jowi Morales

[DFG]

Nine PBS is afraid that it will lose over 70 years of archival materials and programming after its contracted cloud storage vendor has apparently gone out of business. According to Current, the channel used Open Source Storage, or OSS, for storing over 50TB of data — but it suddenly lost access to its data earlier this year. Nine PBS has been working with OSS and its predecessor since 2019 and intended to renew its contract on March 6 of this year. The company never responded and abruptly cut off the station’s data access even though it still had 30 days to retrieve its data after the contract ended.

The station dug a little bit deeper when it discovered that the OSS website no longer existed and was listed as delinquent under the Colorado Secretary of State. It also discovered that OSS utilized Iron Mountain’s services, so it sent a demand letter to the latter to preserve its data and to "pay any reasonable costs associated with its demand." At the time, Iron Mountain did not confirm or deny that it possessed Nine PBS’ data.

At the same time, the channel also sued OSS and its leadership, which it paused after someone who claimed to be a "managing partner of the group that officially acquired" the company reached out. The person, named James Tramel, initially communicated with Nine PBS for about a month. However, this also ended abruptly, with the channel eventually receiving an automated reply from Tramel stating he is no longer connected with OSS. The channel was able to get in touch with him, and he said that he had "been defrauded" into acquiring the cloud storage company and that ownership and operations have now reverted to the previous owners.

This left the channel at a loss, so it continued its case against OSS, and the court ruled that Nine PBS had all the rights to access its data stored with OSS and that the latter should "facilitate its transfer to a new vendor." The channel’s attorney also reached out to Iron Mountain to inform the company of the pending case in Colorado; Iron Mountain finally admitted to holding the data. Iron Mountain initially agreed to turn over Nine PBS’ data, but it eventually backtracked and claimed that OSS owned the data it stored. Because of this, Nine PBS now has no choice but to sue Iron Mountain, too, to ensure the data is not deleted.

The entire thing is a nightmare scenario for Nine PBS, especially as it’s still unclear what will happen to its data. The channel can only assume that its former cloud storage provider is no longer paying data center bills, so it’s rightfully concerned that its data might end up lost forever. And even if Iron Mountain is willing to give Nine PBS its data, it risks getting sued by OSS — it is simply protecting itself by refusing to turn over the said stored data.

It seems that the safest legal way to resolve this issue is for Nine PBS to get a court order requiring Iron Mountain to turn over its data. But the channel must act quickly to ensure that its data, which Nine PBS VP and CCO Leah Freeman said to Current represented "70 years of our organization’s history," stays safe.

It's not clear if the channel has backups of its data, but based on its determination, we suspect not. This is strange, though, especially for a major organization, as one can easily purchase a six-bay NAS on Amazon and populate it with the best HDDs. This also goes against the 3-2-1 backup rule, which says you should keep three copies of your files stored in two different mediums, with one of them running offsite. Hopefully Nine PBS will implement a better backup system once it regains access to its data. And at least there's still a chance — it's not like the fire that the South Korean government experienced last year, which saw 858TB of data go up in smoke.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: cloudstorage; jamestramel; ninepbs; opensource

[Presbyterian Reporter]

I can see why PBS is upset. Since Trump cut off Federal funding, PBS has been running old programs. PBS needs to save what little money from donors to keep their leftist political programs running.

[bankwalker]

Open source?

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "It's not clear if the channel has backups of its data, but based on its determination, we suspect not"

Redundancy is found throughout the world, so sole sourcing any of this, if true and not retrievable, is proof that "decision makers" so often make poor decisions. From inventories of material and materiel to libraries, availability is always the key, logistics the art and prudent planning, 'decision makers' so often are culprits, in some cases.

[Chickensoup]

If it is not in your hands you don’t own it

[OldHarbor]

And….. it’s gone.

I watch Asian tv dramas and every so often the websites that host them go under.

I’ve often wondered what happens to their databases of the sites that fold. . All those tv shows, gone .

[Robert DeLong]

How sad. 70 years f mostly lies and anti-AAmerica propaganda lost forever, yet the effects still linger.

[yuleeyahoo]

My former company used Iron Mountain for decades. However, the data sent to Iron Mountain was a backup for our onsite storage in case of direct hurricane hit.

[Mean Daddy]

Used Iron Mountain for years as a backup but we always retained a copy. With the Cloud, people are putting all their eggs in one basket. Expensive lesson.

[VAFreedom]

iron mountain, that’s old school... i remember we used to send tape backups to them from all the wells fargo advisors branches, those crappy exobyte tape drives were trash too, 5-6k a pop, had to call in replacement almost weekly at different locations.

backup management for all the wells fargo advisors got so tedius i had to hire a woman for that job.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I guess they’re left holding the Telethon tote bag.

[Paladin2]

Data Centers look like Data Prisons.

[I want the USA back]

Modern version of “putting all your eggs in one basket”.

[Red Badger]

There is no such thing as “The Cloud”, it’s just someone elses computer..................

[Organic Panic]

Iron Mountain. That was who did the back up for one of the first aircraft companies I worked for 25 years ago. Never thought much about them.

BUT... if you’re gonna back up data. Triple redundancy is the way to go. I use Idrive and have good experience. I also have RAID 1 set up on the laptop. Those are all duplicated to my second laptop at another location. And then I do a weekly backup to portable drives I rotate in my fire safe. Maybe it’s my time in aircraft manufacturing. Everything has at minimum double redundancy. Anything important...triple. Minimum.

[Bayard]

Have to start storing data on stone tablets for it to last.

[wally_bert]

Something I have recommended over using printers.

I despise printers with everything I have.

Lotus Notes is right behind.

[Paladin2]

The Cloud makes it sound like there is plenty-O-backup for everything put up there.

[FrozenAssets]

How right you are. I don’t upload any of my stuff anywhere. Hard drives are not that expensive.

[Red Badger]

Remember Kamalala’s use of the term?...........

SNOPES:

Yes, Kamala Harris Once Said Cloud Storage Exists ‘Above Us,’ Not in a ‘Physical Place’

“It’s on your laptop, and it’s then therefore up here in this cloud, that exists above us, right? It’s no longer in a physical place,” she said.