Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Enterprise-ready VTLs"
This article is part of the Vol. 7 No. 6 August 2008 issue of Betting on an enterprise-level virtual tape library (VTL)
Most virtual tape libraries will accelerate backups, but there are key differences among them when it comes to scaling, interoperability and management. For a growing number of organizations, a virtual tape library (VTL) provides a cost-effective addition to their disk-based backup. By storing data to disk rather than tape, the VTL speeds data backup and retrieval without requiring users to change their existing backup processes. This is because, to the backup server and backup application, the VTL looks like a traditional tape library. Benefits include squeezing ever-larger data sets into tight backup windows, retrieving data quickly when required for legal or regulatory reasons, and reducing the operational and reliability risks related to tape. However, not all VTLs are created equal. The larger and more complex the storage environment, the more attention users should pay to how the VTL provides scalability, performance, manageability and deduplication which, by storing only unique bits of data, can reduce disk capacity and bandwidth needs by as much as ... Access >>>
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Features
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Lights, camera, storage!
by Deni Connor
The digital media business and corporate multimedia departments are looking at increasing terabytes and even petabytes of information generated in the creation, editing, archiving and distribution of digital content. In addition, the move to high-definition television and higher resolution camera work will tax storage boundaries.
- Reliability questions plague solid state
- Breaking news: Excel not top storage management tool
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Ask the Experts: Tape media failure
Is there a way to anticipate tape media failures?
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Enterprise-ready VTLs
by Robert L. Scheier
Enterprise-class virtual tape libraries (VTLs) are an increasingly cost-effective destination for data that needs to be backed up or restored quickly, and isn't quite ready for offsite archiving. But the more complex the storage environment, the more attention users should pay to how the VTL provides scalability, performance, manageability and deduplication.
- Keep it or can it?
- Server virtualization adoption by the numbers
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Lights, camera, storage!
by Deni Connor
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Quality Awards IV: It's a tie--EMC and NetApp share enterprise array honors
In the four years we've conducted our Diogenes Labs-Storage magazine Quality Award for enterprise arrays, we've never had co-winners ... until now. EMC Corp. rode to the top on very strong scores in the product features and reliability sections, while co-winner NetApp was a model of consistency.
- Our View: Seek and ye shall not find
- Get a grip on encryption keys
- Green shops take MAID for a spin-down
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Storage at your service
by Ellen O'Brien
Storage-as-a-service (SaaS) companies learned from the mistakes of their dot-com era predecessors. Today, SaaS is being driven by economic factors, as well as runaway data growth, compliance requirements, security issues and disaster recovery mandates. And a few well-established storage heavyweights entering the market hasn't hurt any.
- Why aren't you encrypting your backup tapes?
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Quality Awards IV: It's a tie--EMC and NetApp share enterprise array honors
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Columns
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Storage Bin 2.0: The life and death of information
We sometimes complicate our processes to create a perception of increased value. Forget information lifecycle management and tiered storage; concentrate on the four simple stages of life for any kind of information.
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Get your iSCSI game on: Best Practices
by Ashish Nadkarni
iSCSI is a mature protocol for accessing storage and a solid alternative to Fibre Channel. Technologies such as blade servers and server virtualization benefit from iSCSI as it lets you minimize the number of connections required. And because everything is IP-based, there's no more need to waste slots for host bus adapters, which simplifies your configuration.
- The big pipe: Editorial
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Backup gets a boost: Hot Spots
by Lauren Whitehouse
Snapshots, continuous data protection and deduplication are making their way into traditional backup products. By capturing, transferring and storing less data in the backup process, organizations can back up more data to disk--retaining data on disk for longer periods of time or enabling disk-to-disk backup for more sets of data than before.
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Storage Bin 2.0: The life and death of information
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