Bus-Tech, Inc., a provider of mainframe virtual tape solutions, has certified the interoperability of its Mainframe Data Library (MDL) with Quantum's DXi7500 disk-based backup and replication system. The combined solution offers the ability to take advantage of Quantum's flexible policy-based deduplication technology and provide data centers with a single backup vehicle for both mainframe and open system server environments.
Data deduplication is "extremely important," Jim O'Connor, director of marketing, Bus-Tech, observes to 5 Minute Briefing because it enables organizations to shrink their data requirements significantly, which "affects your storage, your transmission costs, your storage at the remote site."
Additionally, as a result of the combined solution, data center managers are now able to combine open system and mainframe servers into a unified backup process, resulting in simplified data backup for the enterprise and a reduction of the overall cost associated with data protection.
"The reality of the economy today is that you have smaller IT staffs and they're asked to do more," O'Connor states. With this approach, companies can have "a single process to combine both their mainframe backup and their distributed systems backup into a single repository, a single process." This can be "really attractive on a cost basis," particularly in the SMB space, he notes, "because of all that is being asked of the IT departments." In bigger shops there is typically an open systems group and a mainframe group, observes O'Connor, but in a smaller shop there is really one group that has to manage both pieces.
As part of the certification process, the MDL was tested with Quantum's DXi7500 in dual FICON and ESCON configurations and connected to the DXi7500 via NFS. Bus-Tech is currently in the process of certifying interoperability via a direct interface to the DXi7500's VTL engine. The combined solution underwent stress and functionality tests to help ensure users can perform normal tape processing without any changes to their existing applications or JCL. The MDL in combination with the Quantum DXi7500 solution provides a cost effective solution for using disk for mainframe and open system backup and recovery.
For more on Bus-Tech, go here. For a white paper on the MDL and DXi approach, go here.