Virtual tape library can back up any systems

The VTL600 has a sustained throughput of 1.8TB/hour

Storage specialist Network Appliance has announced its most comprehensive virtual tape library system yet. Available in capacities ranging from 4.5TB to 84TB, the VTL600 is a disk-to-disk device that can back up data from any server or application. Other Network Appliance disk-to-disk backup products work only with the firm’s own storage devices.

The VTL600 has a sustained throughput of 1.8TB/hour. Firms buy this type of device to make backups more quickly than they could by storing data directly onto tape libraries, thereby reducing the number of failed or incomplete backup jobs.

The vendor acquired the software portion of the VTL600 technology last year when it purchased Alacritus Software. The VTL600 merges that software with Network Appliance’s hardware and is the first product from that acquisition to carry the firm’s brand name.

Stuart Gilks, Network Appliance systems engineering director, said the key to the VTL600 is that it supports a wide variety of storage hardware. “The VTL600 takes data from any application – the primary data could be stored on any vendor’s storage systems: for example, an EMC or IBM disk array.”

Gilks added that the VTL600 tunes itself to optimise performance. “We sample data as it comes in to make best use of any data compression available on the back-end tape drive.” This ensures tapes are filled to capacity even if compression is used. Other vendors’ VTL products do not do this, leading to wasted tape capacity, Gilks said.

Separately, the firm announced an upgrade to its DataFort encryption appliance. Gilks said, “We’re using new revision 3 firmware, which supports iSCSI.”