Backups for SMB virtualized environments, data protection for Z/OS mainframes
Altaro, a maker of backup software for small and mid-sized businesses, announced last week a new version of its backup technology — Hyper-V Backup. SMBs deploying Hyper-V virtualization have long been looking for data protection solutions that fit their limited budgets and skimpy IT resources. Altaro’s Hyper-V Backup, which is easy to install and configure, fits well into the SMB’s protection arsenal.
Available in three versions, Hyper-V Backup uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) technology to non-disruptively back up virtual machines. The backup technology also supports Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) in Windows Server 2008 for high availability. The freeware version backs up as many as two virtual machines. The standard edition, which protects as many as five virtual machines, is $345 per host, and the unlimited edition, which protects as many virtual machines per host computer as you have, is $445.
And to top it off on the high-end, EMC last week unveiled a mainframe virtual tape library — the EMC DLm600 VTL. This VTL replaces banks and banks of IBM 3480 tape drives with open systems storage. Specifically, the DLm6000 VTL allows the backup of data from z/OS mainframes to EMC’s VNX storage array. In addition, EMC has integrated the DLm600 VTL with its Data Domain deduplication appliances, which deduplicate and compress secondary backup data. The new VTL supports FICON and ESCON interfaces and scales to 5.7PB and performs at 7.2TB/hr. EMC acquired the technology last year when it acquired long-time partner Bus-Tech.
