Tectrade Offers LaserVault Backup

Tectrade BV, a technology solutions provider and IBM Premier Business Partner with offices in the Netherlands, Australia, UK, and the US, has added LaserVault’s Universal Backup Device (UBD) to their solutions for iSeries users in BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg).

LaserVault Backup is a tapeless backup solution that integrates with the iSeries and AS/400 to provide fast and secure backups with or without the need for tape media, creating a backup solution for businesses.

“We selected LaserVault’s UBD because it will give our customers a tapeless backup solution and at the same time optimize the use of their current storage equipment,” says Antoni Uni, service transition consultant, Tectrade.

He adds: “Most of the 3rd party backup solutions on the iSeries market cannot be used to backup and restore the complete iSeries including the Licensed Internal Code (LIC), where UBD can be used as an alternate IPL device.”

“Customers with storage replication to a second datacenter are the customers who benefit the most from using UBD. When the customer backs-up their iSeries data to a storage platform that replicates the data to a second DC, with UBD, the customer’s iSeries backup is automatically offsite without any tape handling. Without a second storage server it is also easy to do a DUPTAP- or with use of BRMS a DUPMEDBRM because the UBD appliance is seen as a normal tape device.”

UBD is a FC connected appliance that appears as a tape device to the IBM i (iSeries, AS/400, System i) host. This allows the business to replace their tape drive(s) with UBD and continue to backup and restore via BRMS, Robot/Save or other backup software package without programming changes.

It works by using a software library installed on the iSeries that implements SAVLIBLV, SAVOBJLV, SAVCFGLV and other backup commands. Because these are very similar to existing backup commands, it makes UBD easy to use and it can be implemented with virtually zero downtime in almost all scenarios, a critical factor for any new software product being installed in an active backup situation.

When compared to tape, most companies see a significant reduction in their backup window with backup speeds of up to 304MB/s achieved for a single backup with UBD, and UBD can work in conjunction with existing cloud storage setups. Where needed, UBD can also be used in conjunction with tape, allowing for immediate access and retrieval of current information, and maintaining tapes for long term storage.

UBD can be used as a gateway device to store backups on your NAS, SAN or any deduplication appliance that supports CIFS, NFS or iSCSI connections, such as:  DataDomain, CommVault, GreenBytes, NetApp, Quantum, Exagrid, etc. For businesses that already have a dedupe solution, UBD will give them a way to backup from their AS/400 or iSeries.

A VTL, which can be costly, is not required with UBD. In addition, it does not use save files on the iSeries. Backups can be automated, saving valuable time for IT staff, and the backed up files can be copied for offsite backup or restored to the iSeries, again, saving time and giving IT the ability to respond to data requests without waiting for tapes to be restored, or for them to be transported back to the main facility if they were located off-site.

Brad Jensen, president of Electronic Storage Corporation, the makers of UBD, states:  “We are excited to have such a distinguished partner as Tectrade offering our iSeries solution which can make such a difference for IBM i users, whether their business is large or small. Where users want fast and secure backups, with or without the addition of tape, UBD provides them a solution that is easy to get into place and start using right away.”

He adds: “We full-heartedly congratulate Tectrade on their 20th anniversary in the IT industry and look forward to a long and successful relationship.“