Dell EMC has announced DLm release 5.1 for synchronous tape replication between data centers, and Universal Data Consistency between tape and disk using the all-flash, PowerMax 8000.
Additionally, Dell EMC is enhancing the long-term retention of tape using cloud-based physical tape replacement powered by Dell EMC Cloud Object Storage (ECS) to address the needs of organizations that want to stretch their tape to cover newer requirements, commit data to the cloud, or simply discontinue using physical tape.
Many mainframe storage strategies today also must include leveraging an organization’s cloud infrastructure to reduce costs. Ideally, says Dell EMC, this is done using capacity within an existing private cloud infrastructure and offloading physical tape or virtual tape data classified as requiring long-term retention. With this release, DLM 5.1 makes cloud storage with Dell EMC ECS easier by adding command options that enable moving data automatically or on demand to the cloud. A new, simple, single restore command can now recall data from ECS.
Recognizing the importance of certain data having interdependencies that must be maintained to ensure data integrity, Dell EMC years ago created an ecosystem called Universal Data Consistency to ensure precise consistency between meta data and datasets written and replicated to multiple storage locations. With the introduction of the PowerMax 8000 attachment to DLm, customers can leverage Universal Data Consistency using all-flash storage. In a recovery situation, time is always critical, as is data consistency. PowerMax’s “end-to-end” NVME architecture combined with Universal Data Consistency can provide a significant assist in performance when the data is not cached, as is the case of a recovery situation.
According to Dell EMC, anther overlooked consideration in using tape for data protection is the currency of the tape datasets between production and DR sites. DLm R5.1 leverages PowerMax’s Symmetrix Remote Data Facility in synchronous mode (SRDF/S) for the ultimate in tape data synchronization. With PowerMax 8000, DLm can assure host applications that tape data is in sync with the disk data since the primary (production DLm) PowerMax array waits until the data is committed by the secondary site PowerMax before the next write is accepted by the host, ensuring that the replicated copy of the data is always as current as the primary.
More information is available about DLm release 5.1, PowerMax 8000, and Dell EMC Cloud Object Storage (ECS).