The Benefits of Using the Virtual Tape Library

The Benefits of Using the Virtual Tape Library

It is evident that many large and small organizations have realized that they cannot go on throwing additional disks at the Big Data issue. The data issue has been given the first priority since a dwindling backup window, increased rules and data explosion makes optimization of the data backup and retrieval abilities less dependent on the physical tape.

As such, organizations are presently appreciating the storage virtualization concept. Its efficacy in delivering rapid and reliable backup and linking the mainframe to open systems has been proven. According to Gartner, about 25 per cent of large enterprises will have substituted conventional backup/recovery software with snapshot and replication techniques by the year 2015.

Enterprise-wide Virtual Tape Library

The Virtual Tape Library systems and their role in the organization of enterprises have changed in the same way as non-mainframe systems including Linux, Windows and Open VMS.

Adopting the mainframe-like practices on the open systems - How are your storage resources in your organization divided - by systems or department? Is there a likelihood of your business benefiting from increased mainframe-like storage virtualisation methods? You may not be a mainframe-only shop and your enterprise data centres manage large different departments with hundreds of servers running several operating systems and applications. In case you run a SAP enterprise resource planning application using UNIX servers, your VTL systems have to be sufficiently flexible so as to be able to sustain it. This means that you make use of established mainframe practices on the open-systems' equation side. Go for VTL systems which work in both worlds, taking in IP-based replication, de-duplication, tape management, snapshot and constant data protection.

Appraise legacy rules - Maybe five years back you assumed a Gen 1 or 2 Virtual Tape Library and set up guidelines regarding the storing and accessing your data. Currently, they may not be legal even if they were wonderful then. As long as there is the explosion of data, there will be regulatory variations and requirements too. A lot is being demanded from IT and in most cases the meagre resources make it necessary for you to reassess the manner in which your automated backup and retrieval systems are constituted. The nature of VTL - "set-it-and-forget it" is quite effective. However, it does not mean that you "set-it and forget-it" completely.

Certain changes have taken place and the policy-based data management can be helpful in placing application data on the appropriate storage level to keep order, security and constancy to suit your application and your business needs.

Perhaps, you need to review those policies to allow for the actual optimization of your data backup, retrieval and storage practices for the present environment. You can reset your baseline efficiently by evaluating your virtualization requirements and utilization. It will then be possible for administrators to plot allocation thresholds and other best practices in order to augment storage size. You will get additional benefits from your storage systems by readjusting policies to be in tune with the current regulations and organizational priorities.

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_(By Patrick O Asytour).