Timothy,
The biggest problem is that physical tape, unlike dasd, has been the
primary method of data archive and data transport since it was created.
(And that includes paper tape.) While tape virtualization is great for
internal tapes, off-site archival now requires an expensive duplicate of
the primary VTL. And, as machine age and are replaced, historical
archival have to be converted to the new equipment.
Also, I could always point to the tape rack and tell the auditors: "You
want the data from 20 years ago? There it is."
Tony Thigpen
Timothy Sipples wrote on 05/22/2018 02:04 AM:
Radoslaw Skorupka wrote:
It is really nice sales pitch, but *technically* IBM it is no longer
possible to write directly to a tape volume from z/OS.
First of all, it's not a sales pitch. I don't do sales pitches very well.
Second, it's also no longer possible to "write directly" to disk drives.
*All* mainframe-attached storage -- flash/SSD, disk, and now tape -- is
highly virtualized, with intelligent controllers equipped with caches.
Why is this progress a problem? And it's a very long arc of progress, not
at all sudden. As I've carefully and accurately documented, there was
nearly 19 years of product overlap as IBM tape made the transition to
virtualized-physical.
Finally, "ask your friendly IBM representative" about IBM TS1155/TS4500
attachment to your IBM TS7700. I have no inside information on that, but I
do pay some attention to IBM's past practices. What I see is that, for
several generations of tape drives stretching back many years, IBM has
waited some period of time before certifying z/OS use of that new tape
drive/tape media/density. I suspect that's because IBM is just being that
extra bit careful with your most precious data (such as most of the world's
most important financial records) and its long-term retention needs, but
ask.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy Sipples
IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE,
Multi-Geography
E-Mail: [email protected]
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