StarWind VTL Software ($1,795)

StarWind Software, Inc., provider of storage virtualization and iSCSI SAN software, announced the release of its Virtual Tape Library (VTL). StarWind VTL uses industry-standard storage technologies for backup and recovery to a disk instead of tapes. With this VTL solution, IT and backup administrators will never need to look for tapes in a warehouse again.

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StarWind VTL is an affordable and easy-to-use technology for companies that have already invested in a tape backup infrastructure. It is aimed at organizations that want to take advantage of the high performance and low costs of disk drives without having to re-architect the way they carry out their backup and recovery procedures.

StarWind VTL uses fast disks to emulate traditional physical tape drives and therefore looks just like tape drives to the OS. Because physical tapes are at risk of deterioration, a virtual environment using disks is a much more reliable, long-term solution, which also happens to be much easier to manage. Also, hard disks are superior storage media, not only because they are much faster than traditional tape drives, but also because they are considerably more dependable and easier to manage.

There are several challenges associated with old-fashioned tapes, which affect the data recovery process at many organizations. IT professionals cannot be certain that existing tapes, stored in a warehouse, are recoverable. According to one Enterprise Strategy Group research, "80% of the customers surveyed were not sure whether all of their backups were reliable and recoverable," again highlighting the need for a more reliable data backup solution.

While tape backup has been a standard for the past few decades, VTL technology now reduces the risk of manual or mechanical failures, increases speed, allows for easier point-in-time reference and reduces storage space. The product easily integrates with existing backup and recovery software including Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec, CA ARCserve Backup and other backup programs which were initially designed to work only with tapes.

StarWind VTL takes only a few minutes to install and the host automatically detects the virtual tape drives and loads the correct driver. StarWind’s VTL technology also delivers faster speeds than competing VTLs by eliminating tape library-specific search and move commands – both of which are no longer necessary.

"Most of our SMB customers who use tapes are asking for VTL because backing up to disks is a lot more reliable than tape backups. Customers tell us that they do not want to go chasing tapes in a warehouse when they need to quickly recover lost data," said Zorian Rotenberg, President and CEO of StarWind. "Our VTL is really simple to use because it integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure without changing existing backup software or any procedures. Additionally it is the most affordable VTL on the market."

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