Broadcom Announces Hybrid Storage Options for Mainframe Data with the CA 1 Flexible Storage Solution

Broadcom Inc., a market leader in enterprise software for critical infrastructure, is releasing a new solution that enables enterprises to store their mainframe data anywhere they choose, including the cloud.

Broadcom’s CA 1 Flexible Storage solution provides secure, cost-effective mainframe data storage options for hybrid IT environments, making it possible for customers to achieve dramatic cost savings and protect against ransomware, according to the vendor.

“Hybrid cloud promises flexibility and cost efficiencies for businesses today and into the future,” said Greg Lotko, senior vice president and general manager, mainframe software division, Broadcom. “We’re partnering closely with clients and delivering significant new capability within products so they can seamlessly integrate the mainframe with the Cloud. The beauty of CA 1 Flexible Storage is that, if mainframe clients want to use commodity storage in their data center, or write to the Cloud, on-prem or off, they can—with no changes to their day-to-day operations or applications.”

Features and benefits of this mainframe storage solution include:

• Flexible and Cost-Effective: CA 1 Flexible Storage provides businesses with the freedom to match the type of storage that best fits particular data, either on premise or in the Cloud, as needed. Businesses can move archive and backup data to the Cloud or any other low-cost storage without the need for special hardware or software. This flexibility opens opportunities to greatly reduce storage costs.
• Efficient: Businesses can reuse existing CA 1 policy-based automation for all storage types, including their preferred cloud storage. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. CA 1 Flexible Storage ensures that all offload-eligible data is processed using low-cost specialty processors, further minimizing resource consumption. In addition, internal testing has demonstrated that batch backup performance is improved by up to 25 percent, lessening tight capacity requirements.
• Secure: With the threat from cyberattacks growing dramatically, data security is a top concern for IT leaders. CA 1 Flexible Storage provides a comprehensive approach to securing data, by leveraging the latest z crypto hardware accelerator and quantum-safe algorithms. This enables backups at a dataset (file) level. This offers greater protection over other solutions that only provide encryption at a device level, which leaves sensitive information vulnerable to insider threats and external attackers.

CA 1 Flexible Storage expands support for immutable backups, meaning they cannot be modified after being created. This greatly reduces risk businesses may face from accidental modification or ransomware attacks, according to the company.

In addition, the solution positions customers to exploit the latest advancements in IBM z16 and z15 while maximizing the value they get from their current software stack—all without the need for any specialized hardware or non-native z/OS software.

Existing CA 1 Tape Management customers are automatically entitled to the new CA 1 Flexible Storage solution and can begin leveraging these new capabilities immediately at no additional cost.