When the news broke that NetApp was abandoning future development of its NearStore virtual tape library (VTL) solution, there was much speculation in the industry that VTL had run its course.  While the popularity of file-interface disk targets—especially those with deduplication capabilities—has gained, VTLs appear to have waned.  Recently published ESG research on The State of Virtual Tape Library Technology provides insight into respondents’ usage of and plans for VTL technology.

What ESG’s research reveals is a mixed outlook for VTLs: there is widespread use of and ongoing interest in VTL technology; however, the technology may simply fill niche requirements for select organizations.  Results of surveying over 500 IT professionals revealed VTL deployments are a function of data volume and organizations’ reliance on physical tape.  Companies with multi-terabytes of data to back up daily require high-performance solutions—such as VTL—in order to meet backup windows, and VTL has higher appeal to those organizations leveraging both disk and tape.

Most IT organizations (80%) are using disk as the initial on-site backup target.  Retention time on disk in D2D2T strategies has been extended from one week (66%) in 2008 to one month or more (68%) in 2010.  The latter number jumps to 80% for VTL users in 2010.  This is likely fueled by the availability of deduplication: more VTL users employ deduplication than those organizations that back up to other forms of disk targets.

VTLs will likely face mounting pressure from competing disk backup targets that are perceived as more cost-effective.  However, organizations with retention mandates requiring physical tape, and data volume that prevents IT from meeting backup windows are likely to find relief in VTL technology.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tags: D2D2T, deduplication, disk backup, NetApp, tape, VTL