IBM TS7700 Virtualization Engine

ViON presents the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700, a family of mainframe virtual tape solutions that optimize tape processing and business continuance. Through the use of virtualization and disk cache, the TS7700 is able to operate at disk speeds while maintaining compatibility with existing tape operations. One of the TS7700 configurations completely eliminates physical tape through the use of a deep disk cache repository. The other offers a fully integrated tiered storage hierarchy of disk and tape which takes advantage of both technologies to deliver performance for active data and best economics for inactive data. Lastly, the two technologies can be combined to provide a flexible policy-managed configuration that offers the benefits of both configurations. Deploying this innovative subsystem can help reduce batch processing time, total cost of ownership and management overhead.

Highlights:

• Helps reduce the cost of data protection, including power, maintenance, operations and support staff
• Helps automate and reduce the complexity of IT operations using advanced policy management
• Supports business continuity through grid connectivity and automated replication
• TS7740 can help accelerate backups and restores by using a tiered hierarchy of disk and tape to make more efficient use of tape drives
• TS7720 provides a cache-centric solution for frequently accessed data
• Supports the IBM TS1140, TS1130, and TS1120 tape drives (plus tape drive-based encryption)
• Up to six (6) TS7700 systems can be configured in a "grid" environment

To help maintain continuous business operations, address regulatory requirements and archive business records, businesses need an infrastructure that can help manage data from online application storage to offline, permanent archive media. Tape is a key part of both the backup and archive life cycle. Tape still provides the lowest total cost of ownership alternative for securely storing long-term archives for recordkeeping and disaster recovery. As data centers and data stores grow, tape operations can become more complex. This growth can lead to increased backup and restore times and higher management overhead and costs.

Common Features:

• May be attached to supported IBM System z servers
• Maximum 2,000,000 virtual volumes
• Maximum of 1,536 virtual drives in a 6-way grid configuration
• Web-based management tools
• Advanced policy management
• IBM TS3000 system console
• Synchronous mode copy
• Remote mount IP link failover

Hardware Summary:

TS7740 Virtualization Engine at a glance:

TS7720 Virtualization Engine at a glance:

¹ Not all array cache capacity is useable. Cache capacities would vary with grid configurations including a combination of both TS7740 and TS7720 models.

² Lists the minimum software level requirements for basic support. Please refer to the technical documentation for specific function or feature support.

To learn more about the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 Family, please submit a request.

The following files are presented in pdf format. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.

• IBM TS7700 Virtualization Engine Datasheet