Interest in virtual tape libraries (VTLs) has been fading in recent months. In fact, if you do an Internet search on virtual tape libraries you won’t find many hits in the last 12-24 months. Why is that?
Tape operations continue to play a significant role in data center operations, especially for data backup and disaster recovery. However, IT personnel have long been trying to simplify tape operations such as the management of tape volumes, tape drives, and tape libraries as well as tape-related disaster recovery operations. Tape automation and virtual tape libraries (VTLs) have helped tremendously but they have also introduced high-costs and new islands of data management.
In addition, connecting tape operations with hybrid cloud environments has been particularly challenging due to changes required to long standing business operations, sequential protocol conversions, data migration complexities, and the sheer volumes of data in legacy tape formats. Gartner believes that formulating and implementing a successful hybrid cloud strategy will remain the top challenge for infrastructure and operations teams for the next several years.1 This seems especially true for those teams wishing to incorporate tape operations into their enterprise hybrid cloud strategy.
The market is hungry for modernization and seamless integration into the rest of IT operations in the data center and the cloud. There is a need for a cost-effective alternative that reduces the complexity of tape management, is automated and self-managed, and is fully integrated with enterprise data protection.
Cobalt Iron has announced the addition of a high-performance VTL ingest feature to Compass, its backup SaaS solution. With this new Compass VTL feature:
- data can be directed to the Compass VTL via tape protocols,
- data are automatically managed and fully integrated with enterprise data protection activities,
- automatic replication can be done to private or public cloud environments,
- there are no VTL appliances to pay for and manage,
- there are no more VTL operational and data silos,
- and you now have VTL ingest into the cloud
One of the groups that stands to benefit greatly from the new Compass VTL feature is IBM iSeries environments where standard Backup, Recovery, and Media Services (BRMS) and/or SAV* backups are typically sent to a local VTL or tape. The Compass VTL feature automates iSeries DR operations, introduces transparent cloud connectivity, and integrates iSeries backup with other enterprise data-protection operations while maintaining familiar iSeries backup functions.
By delivering a fully integrated virtual tape library and data protection solution Cobalt Iron is elevating VTL workloads to first class citizenship in the IT world. Customers with requirements to support these complex workloads can now enjoy clean policy management, analytics driven automation, reduced cost, and elimination of complexity with a unified data protection solution. There are still important use cases for tape but that doesn’t mean it has to be business as usual. Click here to learn more about modernization and integration options with Compass VTL.
- Gartner, “Top Challenges Facing I&O Leaders in 2018, and What to Do About Them”, March 7, 2018