… Innovation Data Processing FDRSOS V5.4.74, DR and Distributed Data Protection Solution

Concurrent with the IBM Data Protection Solutions announcement of direct System z mainframe FICON access to DS8700 resident Open Systems disk, INNOVATION Data Processing is announcing FDRSOS V5.4.74, a disaster recovery and distributed data protection solution to employ this new IBM DS8700 z/OS Distributed Data Backup (zDDB) technology.

"There is a new wave in Disaster Recovery and Distributed Data Protection. While increasingly customers find themselves integrating business processing and consolidating their mainframe and Open Systems platforms, 81% of respondents in a recent survey report data/storage growth is their biggest data protection challenge," said INNOVATION spokesman and Vice President, Advance Technology, Thomas J Meehan. "This IBM Data Protection Solutions initiative is a significant announcement. It is the start of a new era of responsiveness and why we are delivering a new version of FDRSOS that combining with the new IBM zDDB technology is the fastest, least disruptive and most efficient z/OS solution for DS8700 disaster recovery and distributed data protection available today," said Meehan.

According to Allen Marin, IBM System Storage marketing spokesman, "The z/OS Distributed Data Backup feature provides the capability to perform backup of Open Systems data on the IBM System Storage DS8700 over high performance FICON connections." "Utilizing this new zDDB technology INNOVATION’s FDRSOS is unique in its ability to move distributed data at high performance FICON megabytes per second versus TCP/IP network megabit per second speeds. There is no other backup/restore solution today that has the capability of using high performance Systems z FICON channels to directly read and write the same DS8700 disk volumes used by the Open Systems business applications themselves," according to Meehan. Marin, further explaining, "This multi-platform backup solution can help clients simplify their heterogeneous backup environments by consolidating and managing them through the mainframe."

SOSINSTANT, the unique combination of FDRSOS, zDDB and FlashCopy is another first. According to Meehan, "Now customers can easily incorporate z/OS management of FlashCopy to create near instantaneous point-in-time copies of the disk volumes Open Systems business applications are using, allowing disaster recovery and data protection plans for distributed data to include non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery from disk."

"I’m very familiar with the FDRSOS technology," says an executive, responsible for strategic decisions concerning storage at an extremely large international financial and banking institution. Adding, "There is no doubt this technology will allow users to consolidate and replace hundreds of distributed Open Systems backup servers, their tapes and their associated peripheral storage with FDRSOS running on a System z mainframe utilizing existing z/OS Tape Management and Security Systems."

INNOVATION FDRSOS and SOSINSTANT, running on a System z mainframe under z/OS and employing IBM zDDB and FlashCopy technology provide the following advantages:

• Eliminate the need for distributed backup servers with dedicated tape and disk
• Reduce network congestion by taking distributed data backup off TCP/IP networks
• Ensure backup no longer constrains production
• Free up CPU resources by moving data on high performance FICON channels
• Maximize value by protecting investments in existing System z mainframe hardware, z/OS Tape Management, Scheduling and Security software systems
• Minimize backup window disruption using FlashCopy
• Empower Open Systems distributed data backup with System z mainframe reliability, accessibility and security
• Broad Ranging Platform Support including Linux on System z, AIX, Linux x86-64, NetWare, OES2, UNIX and Windows
• Easy-to-use and simple to automate