StorageTek Enhances VSM

StorageTek said it has enhanced its intelligent Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) system, delivering on its commitment to providing customers with industry leading virtual storage management solutions. Doubling the disk buffer capacity of VSM results in faster data retrieval and provides greater flexibility to meet growing storage requirements, officials said.

“Raising the standard for performance, capacity, and manageability with VSM allows us to extend our lead in tape storage virtualization,” said Gary Francis, StorageTek corporate vice president and general manager, Automated Tape Solutions, in a statement. “Our virtual technology has become an integral part of our customers’ data center operations and we have responded to that need by enhancing the functionality of VSM, allowing our customers to maximize the benefits of their automated tape solutions.”

StorageTek’s VSM customers can now double disk buffer capacity to maintain their VSM investment and take advantage of greater scalability and flexibility in meeting their storage needs.

* Double capacity: Customers enjoy capacity increases to 3.78TB.

* Greater scalability: More levels of capacity within each VSM and superior total capacity across multiple VSMs to meet growing storage requirements.

* Improved mount hit ratio: Customers will see faster virtual mount times and data access.

* Cache enhancements: Customers will see improved performance as they retain a larger portion of their tape files in active disk cache.

StorageTek has also addressed the problem of inefficient use of tape media and transports with its Virtual Storage Manager (VSM). VSM resolves these inefficiencies by storing virtual tape volumes on a disk buffer, which allows for nearly instantaneous recall.

VSM then manages the volumes by migrating (and stacking) selected virtual tape volumes to real tape volumes in a Nearline automated solution. These stacked volumes can be taken offsite for disaster recovery purposes saving the customer storage costs. When needed by the host, migrated tape volumes are automatically recalled to the disk buffer.

By using a disk buffer and virtual tape technology, VSM optimizes access time, throughput, and physical media and transport use, thus providing significant savings for the customer.