Mainframe IT managers have used physical tape for backup and recovery for decades. However, they no longer have to accept the limits that physical tape technologies impose on local backups and remote disaster recovery.

This white paper analyzes the use, recoverability and cost advantages of what Luminex refers to as Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape, or virtual tape systems without any physical tape requirement. It will also examine the issues and limitations associated with using physical tape, disk cache-physical tape combinations, or primary disk remote replication for backup and disaster recovery. The white paper provides insight on how mainframe data centers are overcoming the limits of physical tape by using Modern Mainframe Virtual Tape with deduplication, resulting in significantly lower operating costs.

Mainframe users of all types, from very large data centers with multiple mainframes at large banks, retailers and government agencies to smaller data centers with single, entry-to-midsized mainframes, are using Luminex and Data Domain to realize the advantages described in this paper.