Virtual tape library

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
The first VTL solution was introduced by Cybernetics in 1992 under the name HSTC (high speed tape cache).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a> Later, IBM released a Virtual Tape Server (VTS) introduced in 1997. It was targeted for a <a href="/facts/Mainframe_computer/nrBR6rWa">mainframe</a> market, where many legacy applications tend to use a lot of very short tape volumes. It used the <a href="/facts/ESCON/oYh25l0t">ESCON</a> interface, and acted as a disk cache for the IBM 3494 tape library. A competitive offering from StorageTek (acquired in 2005 by Sun Microsystems, then subsequently by Oracle Corporation) was known as Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) which leveraged the market dominant STK Powderhorn library as a back store. Each product line has been enhanced to support larger disk buffer capacities, FICON, and more recently (c. 2010) "tapeless" disk-only environments.
Other offerings in the mainframe space are also "tapeless". DLm has been developed by EMC Corporation, while <a href="/facts/Luminex_Software,_Inc./IHN8pYzN">Luminex</a> has gained popularity and wide acceptance by teaming with Data Domain to provide the benefits of <a href="/facts/Data_deduplication/sHuJ8zya">data deduplication</a> behind its Channel Gateway platform. With the consequent reduction in off-site replication bandwidth afforded by deduplication, it is possible and practical for this form of virtual tape to reduce <a href="/facts/Recovery_point_objective/gDARyxfl">recovery point objective</a> time and <a href="/facts/Recovery_time_objective/gDARyxfl">recovery time objective</a> to near zero (or instantaneous).
Outside of the <a href="/facts/Mainframe_computer/nrBR6rWa">mainframe</a> environment, tape drives and libraries mostly featured <a href="/facts/SCSI/pxXulrBr">SCSI</a>. Likewise, VTLs were developed supporting popular SCSI transport protocols such as <a href="/facts/SCSI_Parallel_Interface/7dVrf7Lc">SPI</a> (legacy systems), <a href="/facts/Fibre_Channel/C7C0yreb">Fibre Channel</a>, and <a href="/facts/ISCSI/oxaQpYBc">iSCSI</a>.
The <a href="/facts/FalconStor/pkBcYACF">FalconStor</a> VTL is the foundation of nearly half of the products sold in the VTL market, according to an Enterprise Strategy Group analyst.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a>
In mid-2010s VTLs got a rebirth thanks to hi-capacity "archive" drives from <a href="/facts/Seagate_Technology/kbkRXJRx">Seagate</a> and <a href="/facts/HGST/x2zN1yXG">HGST</a> and more popular "tape in cloud" and Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (often in cloud) scenarios. <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a>
<a href="/facts/Amazon_(company)/YzUTUVE8">Amazon</a> and <a href="/facts/StarWind_Software/g1nnYUSJ">StarWind Software</a> in partnership with <a href="/facts/Veeam/QIEJVRFk">Veeam</a>, <a href="/facts/BackBlaze/oht2hVtc">BackBlaze</a> and <a href="/facts/Wasabi_Technologies/PJERFtXM">Wasabi Technologies</a> offer a so-called gateway products that facilitates backing up and archiving "on premises" data as virtual tapes stored in <a href="/facts/Amazon_Web_Services/UFVN2796">AWS</a>, <a href="/facts/Microsoft/nGIDDXdx">Microsoft</a> <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Azure/CCnIHTHd">Azure</a>, <a href="/facts/Wasabi_Technologies/PJERFtXM">Wasabi Technologies</a> and <a href="/facts/BackBlaze/oht2hVtc">BackBlaze</a> public clouds.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> The idea is to provide a seamless integration of a backup applications incompatible with the APIs object storages expose. Say, at the time <a href="/facts/Veeam/QIEJVRFk">Veeam</a> couldn't do <a href="/facts/Amazon_Web_Services/UFVN2796">AWS</a> <a href="/facts/Amazon_S3/bqAXYCxq">S3</a> and can't backup to the deep archive tier within <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Azure/CCnIHTHd">Azure</a> still. <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Backup/ldV72CkU">Backup</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Tape_library/hBg9VeYx">Tape library</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Tape_management_system/sRRgf4zE">Tape Management System</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Disk_staging/1MxXAXUm">Disk staging</a> for an alternative approach</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Emulation_(disambiguation)/DHByaJy8">Emulation</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Storage_virtualization/59AlfJSY">Storage virtualization</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Seven_tiers_of_disaster_recovery/Qxz9zoEg">Seven tiers of disaster recovery</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">"History of VTL/IBM". <a href="https://www.itjungle.com/2014/10/21/fhs102114-story03//" target="_blank">https://www.itjungle.com/2014/10/21/fhs102114-story03//</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"InfoStor ESG Report on FalconStor Virtual Tape Library". <a href="https://www.infostor.com/index/articles/display/9694734941/s-articles/s-infostor/s-volume-13/s-issue_3/s-New_Analysis___Trends/s-VTLs__Going_beyond_data_de-dupe.html/" target="_blank">https://www.infostor.com/index/articles/display/9694734941/s-articles/s-infostor/s-volume-13/s-issue_3/s-New_Analysis___Trends/s-VTLs__Going_beyond_data_de-dupe.html/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"The Rise, Fall, and Rise, of Virtual Tape Libraries". <a href="https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2016/03/11/the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-virtual-tape-libraries.aspx/" target="_blank">https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2016/03/11/the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-virtual-tape-libraries.aspx/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"Integration of AWS Storage Gateway with Veeam – Backups and backup copy in Cloud". orgedelacruz.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2017. <a href="https://jorgedelacruz.uk/2017/09/06/veeam-integration-of-aws-storage-gateway-with-veeam-backups-and-backup-copy-in-cloud/" target="_blank">https://jorgedelacruz.uk/2017/09/06/veeam-integration-of-aws-storage-gateway-with-veeam-backups-and-backup-copy-in-cloud/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"Setting Up a Veeam to StarWind Virtual Tape Library Configuration". mpecsinc.com. Retrieved 3 March 2020. <a href="https://blog.mpecsinc.com/2020/03/06/setting-up-a-veeam-to-starwind-virtual-tape-library-configuration/" target="_blank">https://blog.mpecsinc.com/2020/03/06/setting-up-a-veeam-to-starwind-virtual-tape-library-configuration/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"Archive backups with Veeam and StarWind Virtual Tape Library". tech-coffee.net. Retrieved 20 April 2018. <a href="https://www.tech-coffee.net/archive-backups-with-veeam-and-starwind-virtual-tape-library/" target="_blank">https://www.tech-coffee.net/archive-backups-with-veeam-and-starwind-virtual-tape-library/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">"Complete the Backup Lifecycle with Veeam's SOBR Archive Tier". Veeam. Retrieved 4 March 2021. <a href="https://www.veeam.com/blog/v11-sobr-backup-lifecycyle.html" target="_blank">https://www.veeam.com/blog/v11-sobr-backup-lifecycyle.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Virtual tape library open-in-new

Virtual tape library