Shortcomings of automated tape libraries
				Automated tape libraries (ATLs) lack a common control standard. Each manufacturer provides its own set of commands and protocols. Although ATLs can hold drives that support multiple connectivity types (e.g., Fibre Channel and FICON), they don't expose their unique command sets to a common interface or API set. Even backup software providers have difficulty recertifying their functionality with each library iteration. With the robot as the control point, only one operating system host can have access to a tape drive at a time. The host is typically running backup software that contains a catalog with configuration information. This host system becomes a logical single point of control, forcing any other host that wants access to the ATL to go through it for communication. There are ways to circumvent this monopolistic control with software like StorageTek's Automated Cartridge System Library Software (ACSLS), which provides some ability to arbitrate control away from the backup software, but only between common hosts. Tape vendors can help open their products by creating a standard set of ATL commands, moving more intelligence to the library using meta data about what's stored in the library, and by exposing robot control software like ACSLS with API extensions that can be manipulated and invoked by other software products, including the competition's. That, at least, would be a start.

Solving the problem
Last year, the Meta Group Inc., Stamford, CT, published "Tape Storage Virtualization--A New & Valuable Approach to Improve Data Center Efficiency," a whitepaper that offers benchmarks to determine when an operation merits consolidation of open systems and mainframe tape configurations.

According to Meta Group, a dramatic cost reduction may be realized if mainframe and open-systems tape can be centrally managed. There are some effective solutions--for example, Fujitsu Siemens' CentricStor and NearTek Inc.'s Virtual Storage Engine support all major platforms simultaneously. NearTek even extends this support to include legacy platforms like AS/400, Unisys mainframes and Hewlett-Packard MPE servers.

These products emulate all the major enterprise tape drive mount types, connect to major storage arrays and support all the major host processing platforms. They provide the impressive cross-platform functionality that many customers would prefer to see delivered natively by the tape library and drive vendors themselves. Instead, to achieve a robust consolidation of enterprise tape environments and to recover costs through improved use of physical assets, customers have to purchase these additional virtualization "engines." Interestingly, the engines commoditize the ATLs, which become passive recipients of data streams as the virtualization engine handles all management functions (see Virtualize tape devices).

Tape-sharing solutions for multiplatform environments will enable standardized, enterprise-wide backup and recovery and reduce the number of storage devices required. Nirvana will be when users can take any library, plug it into any multiplatform host environment and back up any system with a tool that migrates old data to the new environment seamlessly.

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