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BENEFITS OF VTL STRATEGY RAMPED UP

From STORAGE Magazine Vol 6, Issue 2 - March 2006
 

Network Appliance has announced what it describes as "a broad new array of products, technologies and services designed to help customers to find new ways to protect and manage their critical enterprise data, without incurring significant new costs, dramatically altering their existing data management processes, or 'ripping and replacing' existing infrastructure investments".
 

The announcement highlights the broad range of NetApp disk-to-disk backup and security solutions that have been targeted at simplifying data backup procedures, improving recoverability and lowering backup infrastructure expenses.

The new products unveiled represent a significant expansion of the NetApp disk-to-disk backup family, including two offerings in the new NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL) family (the single-head NearStore VTL600 and the dual-head NearStore VTL1200 ), new Decru DataFort E-Series functionality for unified NAS-iSCSI protocol support, and enhanced capabilities for NetApp customers to protect their remote office/branch office (ROBO) data, as well as that in their data centres.

NearStore VTL is a dedicated, enterprise-class storage appliance that emulates physical tape libraries, stores large
capacities of backup data on disk, and automatically copies data to physical tape under backup application control within any open systems storage environment. Both new systems are based on proven NetApp hardware and run NetApp VTL software, which integrates seamlessly with a wide range of storage management and backup software, including NetApp Data ONTAP.

Additionally, NetApp is collaborating with long-standing partner Symantec to enhance overall disk-to-disk backup, designed to offer greater functionality for customers deploying NetApp with VERITAS NetBackup, now from Symantec. Complementary new services include a VTL Design and Implementation Service, a Disaster Recovery Design and Implementation Service, and a Backup and Recovery Design and Implementation Service. NetApp Global Services (NGS) has launched three new service offerings to help customers quickly and effectively leverage the NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL) family, the Decru DataFort
E-Series and other new products and product enhancements, These new services are said to expand the overall NGS backup, recovery and restore consulting portfolio. They are also described as complementing the newly introduced products, as well as the existing portfolio of hardware and software products. The new solutions and services are designed to provide customers with solutions to help their business remain in business - even in the event of a disaster.

Customer benefits of the three new services are defined as:

• Maximised data protection. Helps customers efficiently execute backups, recoveries, and restores in a timely manner to provide continuous access to mission-critical data
• Leveraged expertise. The NGS highly trained professional services staff has extensive NetApp hardware and software certifications, best-in-class enterprise storage architecture experience, and deep project management skills
• Empowered IT staff. In each engagement, NGS applies industry best practices and proven methodologies by providing a thorough knowledge transfer to customers. NGS will fully train your IT staff to aid a fluid adoption of routine backup and restore operations

Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of NetApp, comments: "Our entire disk-to-disk backup family helps solve our customers' most pressing needs: managing huge and growing data volumes, protecting that data from a variety of threats and risks, and preserving uptime. We created the disk-to-disk backup market more than four years ago with the first NearStore product using inexpensive disks to provide enterprise protection.

"This announcement extends that leadership, offers more choice and flexibility to our customers, and brings credibility to
the emerging VTL space,” he adds. “The net effects are simpler management and lower outlay costs - as well as higher data availability - which translate directly into bottom line payoffs."

Carl Greiner, senior vice president, infrastructure at Ovum, comments: "Disk-to-disk backup is ready for primetime. Customers are growing frustrated at the limitations of tape and desire an approach that increases performance, offers much-needed simplicity, and maximises the value they extract from their existing investments in data backup infrastructure."