Clem Kruger said:

>Good day to you all,

 

Good day to you!  

 

>Those of you who are thinking of using VTL's I would urge to re think 

>that technology. 

 

Can't say I agree with you there.  I hate responding in the negative,
but your message was so strongly worded against VTLs, I felt I just had
to respond.

 

>There are so many issues, 

>the main being you are still bound by SCSI rules. 

 

You're bound by SCSI rules as long as you're using SCSI.  Not sure what
you mean here.

 

>Another fact is that you need to delete tapes that have 

>been expired to claim back the "Disk" space. 

 

...or you expire the tapes just like you do in a real tape library.
But, again, this makes perfect sense.

 

>Have you heard of poor media on VTL? Yes you get it and it is serious.

 

Then you had a BAD VTL!  I have heard of some bugs from some early
implementations, but I haven't heard of anything recent.  If you're
getting a "bad tape" in a VTL, then something is seriously wrong.  And I
would get a VTL manufacturer to have something in writing to deal with
this thing that should never happen.

 

>As far as backing up to VTL and then to tape, 

>it is best to do an in-line backup, 

>where you backup to both VTL and real tape at the same time.

 

To use your terminology, this method causes you to be bound by the rules
of tape. Your backup will now be forced to go the speed of the lowest
common denominator, the tape drive.

 

>NetBackup has released their Disk to Disk API to the public Domain

>and we will soon be out of this interim phase of VTL's.

 

The companies that will program to that API are the very companies
you're recommending not using.  With Data Domain as the only exception,
all of the companies that are programming to that API are VTLs.

 

>I am current investigating DataDomain which works extremely 

>well with NetBackup. I find the amount of space being saved 

>is quite phenomenal. The speed of backups is exceptional. 

 

And almost all VTLs now offer this functionality as well.  DD's been in
the industry longer than everyone else in this space, and their number
of de-dupe customers is miles ahead of anybody else.  I'm not saying
anything's wrong with them, but it sounds like you're saying "VTLs are
dead, long live Data Domain."  Don't think I'd go that far.

 

>There is also a wonderful replication facility which guarantees 

>your data to you off sire storage in no time at all.

 

Again, they're an early mover here, but this is starting to become
commonplace.

 

 

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