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Managing a Tape Environment Is No Longer an Oxymoron: Page 6 of 6

Tape Verification -- using an otherwise empty tape drive, the RVA appliance can verify that the information written on tapes is still correct. The resulting reports show metrics of all tapes verified, which is useful for providing clearly documented records for regulatory compliance (think Sarbanes-Oxley, where restoring financial data is necessary to avoid big problems) and for Service Level Agreements. Overall, IT can rest easier knowing that tapes are good in case a recovery is necessary.

Typically, I avoid injecting my personal experience in my observations. However, many years ago, I ran a Fortune 500 data center that had a mixture of mainframes and minicomputers (now called open systems servers). On many occasions, I needed more information about the non-mainframe environment, and I kept asking my managers why I couldn't have the same information that was available for the mainframes. Since they had no control over the operating system of the non-mainframe systems, my requests could not be met. But I never give up and so, even though I am no longer managing a data center, I want IT to have the tools and information that they need.

And that includes tape. My data center had to manage 10,000 tapes even then. And we had one device we called the tape drive of last resort in the mainframe environment that was used to read what other tape drives might not. This is the reason I find the Crossroads solution interesting enough to bring to your attention. Tape is not dead (and not likely to die as soon as some pundits would have it), but while it is alive, it deserves to be managed well. Crossroads combination of RVA along with its three tape environment services should provide enterprises the tools they need to better manage and maintain their tape environments.