Evaluating Appliance-Based VTL Solutions for Mainframe Environments

Thinking about upgrading your tape backup server for an IBM Mainframe?

Upgrading your IBM Mainframe’s tape backup server is a significant decision. Whether you currently utilize physical or virtual tapes, the primary focus should be on fulfilling your enterprise’s specific needs. If you’re currently employing IBM’s TS7700 or a similar solution, it’s crucial to consider how your virtual tape images will be securely protected and readily accessible for disaster recovery, business continuity, or offloading activities.

Let’s explore x86-based appliance solutions and highlight key factors that go beyond basic backup and restore functions, ensuring effective data protection.

Security and Protection Measures

First and foremost, securing your virtual tape images at rest is critical. A solution offering compression and encryption is essential. For instance, Top Gun’s x86-based appliance solution provides AES-256 encryption with a rolling key process, shielding your company’s data from unauthorized access. This encryption should extend to data both at rest and in transit across your network during site-to-site replication. The appliance’s dedicated tool should be the only means to access and read data, fortified against brute-force decryption attempts.

Safeguard protections

An appliance-based solution should also incorporate a scratch process for an additional layer of data protection. This process involves dynamically archiving the volume before creating a new, pristine scratch tape image. You should have the flexibility to determine the retention period for these archives, mitigating the risk of operational errors escalating into disasters. Your storage administrator should possess the ability to swiftly recover archived tape images within minutes upon request.

Replication and Redundancy

For enhanced redundancy and safety, your appliance solution should facilitate dynamic replication across multiple locations. Unlike external software solutions, this process should be seamlessly integrated into the appliance, allowing you to pause transfers on demand for tape image MOUNT requests. Once the volume is dismounted, transmission should resume, leveraging available compression and encryption to achieve optimal transmission speeds.

As you upgrade your Mainframe tape server, the security and accessibility of your virtual tape library backups become paramount. By evaluating x86-based appliance solutions, such as Top Gun’s offering, you can ensure data protection extends beyond basic backup and restore processes. Features like AES-256 encryption, dynamic archiving, and typically 80% faster replication empower you to protect your virtual tape images with confidence. Choose a solution that prioritizes security, reliability, and effortless accessibility, ensuring peace of mind for your data’s safety.