iSam Blue, LLC and Tributary Systems, Inc. have teamed to offer Tributary’s Storage Director virtual backup storage solution to IBM i users. Robert Seal, iSam Blue CEO, and Ed Ahl, Tributary director of Business Development, made the announcement today.

Seal explains why he is adding Tributary’s Storage Director to the iSam Blue portfolio of IBM i data protection products and services: “When I first heard about Storage Director at COMMON Expo, I realized that this is a backup solution that many IBM i users need. This solution is ideal for those with multiple IBMs and/or multiple heterogeneous server platforms. Equally, it is for those who want to fully automate their long-term data storage, or implement new backup storage technology, across all their platforms simultaneously and/or provide an inexpensive automated alternative to offsite vaulting storage.”

“Today, many IBM i data centers are heterogeneous,” notes Ahl. “In addition to the IBM i, they have AIX, plus Windows, plus Linux or other open systems. Typically, each server has its own backup storage, which translates into excess capacity and fragmented management. Storage Director is a virtual backup storage appliance… allows heterogeneous data centers to consolidate all of those backups, thereby reducing excess capacity while improving server and storage performance.”

The Storage Director appliance allows the connection of heterogeneous server platforms to a variety of storage technologies. It virtualizes data backup and long-term storage via a rules-based, intuitive interface that’s easy to use. Learning time is reduced thanks to the common interface for all types of storage, according to the companies. Storage Director protects your investment by allowing the use of legacy devices while implementing new storage technologies across all your servers, say the companies.

Data can be stored on Storage Director or on another Storage Director, SAN, NAS, tape and other devices; more are added all the time. Storage Director’s software can be upgraded so you can use new types of media as they become available. You can also retain legacy storage devices to retrieve historical data without having to convert it when you get a new device.

Benefits of Storage Director in IBM i Environments

• Reduce redundant devices (i.e., consolidate tape devices now directly attached to each server)
• Virtualize your long term storage media (i.e., SD virtualizes your tape backups so they can be stored locally or remotely; source and target do not have to know each other)
• Centralize and simplify management with easy-to-use interface
• Replicate disk-to-disk initially then disk-to-tape
• Write in native tape format, even to disk
• Reduce hardware expenses
• Expand choice of storage devices (i.e., single-tape devices, tape libraries, data deduplication devices, SAN or NAS, optical disk, another server or LPAR, or another Storage Director)
• Retain legacy devices and still allow early adoption of new technology (i.e., add newer tape formats and keep old tape drives).

About Tributary Systems

Tributary Systems, Inc. delivers data protection with vision, across IBM, H-P, Windows, and open systems platforms. For more information, visit www.tributary.com.