Virtual tapes bind disaster recovery

IBM announces capacity boost for virtual tape storage products

IBM has boosted the capacity of its virtual tape storage (VTS) product line to 6TB, while DataCore is tailoring low-cost storage virtualisation packages for European universities.

The IBM Systems Storage TS7700 Virtualisation Engine is designed to provide large companies running mainframes with fast replication capabilities to aid disaster recovery.

The device costs £250,000 + VAT and features either four 100Mbit/s Ficon or two Gigabit Ethernet channels for long-distance WAN connectivity. It can currently replicate data either synchronously or asynchronously between two sites, with three-way replication planned for next year and a solution supporting eight sites expected at a later stage.

“The tape cartridge behind this is 300GB of uncompressed capacity, and we’ll be able to put about 8TB on the same size tape within about six years. With two [TS7700] systems in a grid we’ve achieved [replication] performance of 300MB/s, which is over 50 percent faster than what we can do with current models,” said IBM systems storage tape manager Peter McNamara.

Existing customers looking to upgrade to the TS7700 from current TotalStorage tape systems would need to buy a new frame, but could keep their existing libraries and 3590 tape drives, though older drives would not be supported. Upgrades will not be available until next year, however, as IBM is reworking its storage software database to track where all the information is stored.

“We believe that the VT7700 offers excellent value and I’m sure that customers wishing to upgrade who have had discounts in the past will get discounts this time, but I can’t guarantee they will be the same,” said McNamara.

DataCore’s new program includes virtualisation software, training and support based on its SANmelody and SANsymphony products, starting at under $1,000. Oxford and Manchester universities have already deployed DataCore solutions, said the company.