IBM has announced that its line of virtual tape storage devices
will soon be able to connect discs used in data backup applications
to mainframes via Fibre Channel links, potentially increasing data
transfer rates by up to 75%.
The company also said it is upgrading its management software for
the virtual tape servers, which look like tape drives to mainframes
but record data onto discs to speed up the backup process. The data
can then be downloaded offline to tape silos.
In addition, IBM rolled out a new model of its 3590 tape drive that
can record 50% more data on tape cartridges than earlier versions.
The 3590 Model H drive uses a new 384-track magnetic recording
head, the company said. In comparison, IBM's older B and E models
can write 256 tracks of data on a single cartridge.
IBM's Virtual Tape Server (VTS) B10 and B20 devices will get
support for linking to mainframes through IBM's Fibre Connection
channel attachment technology, which is based on Fibre Channel and
referred to as Ficon.
The technology supports peak data bandwidth of 100MB/sec, more than
five times the 17MB/sec ceiling for IBM's proprietary Enterprise
System Connection channels.
The Ficon links are scheduled to become available in September and
are priced at $150,000 (£97,266) for the underlying enablement
technology, plus $30,000 (£19,450) for each channel. A performance
accelerator feature that lets the VTS controller use additional
processors is due in January at a list price of $100,000 (£64,844),
IBM said.
Dianne McAdam, an analyst at Illuminata, said the Ficon support
will help reduce data backup times for mainframe users who rely on
VTS subsystems.
The upgraded management software is also a step forward for IBM,
McAdam said. The company's virtual tape technology has lagged
behind that of rival Storage Technology, she said, adding, "This is
IBM getting on the same level of what StorageTek had in the
past."
IBM said the VTS Advanced Policy Management upgrade will support
volume pooling, which lets storage administrators save similar data
on a single group of tape cartridges. For example, if a company has
customer data related to a specific business unit, that information
can automatically be saved to one set of tapes, simplifying data
archiving.
The software, which is scheduled for release in September, will
also include a dual-copy feature that automatically creates two
copies of data for disaster recovery purposes. The package has a
list price of $30,000 (£19,450) for new users; upgrades for
existing VTS installations start at $5,000 (£3,242).