The FalconStor VTL family of products are Virtual Tape Library offerings served in appliance or software flavors. Additionally, a virtual appliance version of the product is offered running over ESX Server 3.01+. Multiple versions of the FalconStor VTL are available; this briefing is based primarily on the Enterprise version of the product (available features may vary from version to version; see the vendor's site for current full details).

The FalconStor VTLs are disk-based systems that appear to host backup systems as tape libraries, allowing the host software to write their data to the VTL (iSCSI, FC, or NDMP communications are supported) in the same manner that they would to tape (but the data actually physically lands on the VTL disks). Multiple 3rd party tape systems are emulated by the platform, including those from Quantum, HP, IBM, Overland, Sun StorageTek, and more; and multiple flavors of host backup software are supported, including NetVault, ARCserve, EMC Legato Networker, VERITAS, and TapeWare, to name a few.

Data written to virtual tape cartridges on the VTL platform can be automatically cached to physical tapes, such that host systems can access the data virtually whether it is physically located on the VTL or in a subsequent physical tape. Data can be automatically migrated to physical tapes based on age of data, time of day, or other metrics. Other tape migration features include support for the export of a virtual cartridge to up to 5 physical tapes simultaneously (optional), as well as the ability to import existing physical tapes into the VTL.

A key feature of the FalconStor VTL platforms is their integration with the vendor's Single Instance Repository (SIR), adding de-duplication capabilities to the VTL. Specifically, the SIR integrates with the VTL in a post-process fashion: Data on current virtual tape cartridges is examined as needed for duplication, with only the unique data stored in the SIR. The virtual cartridge itself is then reconstructed with index pointers to the SIR-stored data; enabling the virtual cartridge to consume less disk space than it would traditionally. Because the de-duplication process is applied to virtual tape cartridges after they have been written, it does not impact the performance of the host backup process itself.

SIR is included in the SMB-targeted VTL appliances; and an option for VTL Enterprise.

The platform's de-duplication features also extend to remote backup and/or replication sites. For remote backup sites (each must have their own VTL appliance), only that data that is unique to the global Enterprise need be sent to the central Enterprise data repository; while replication from the main site to a disaster site also leverages de-duplication, transmitting only the uniquely stored data over the wire for replication.

HA/redundant pairing and deployments are supported both for the VTLs (up to 8 nodes, 4 H/A pairs), and the SIR (which supports up to 4 nodes + 1 recovery node; all of which can be managed as a single entity).

Other features available for FalconStor Enterprise include support for encryption of data stored on physical tape and "tape shredding" for the destruction of virtual tape cartridges; while optional features include hardware-based data compression; tape consolidation (the ability to export multiple virtual tapes to a single physical tape); and replication with encryption.

The FalconStor VTLs are offered as a range of appliances supporting from 3 TB (virtual appliance) to 250 TB of capacity (these numbers are for the native VTL, not SIR; SIR itself can expand to up to 256 TB). Some appliances are offered with self-contained storage; while the high-end offerings are deployed as gateways accessing external storage. The high-end offerings are additionally served in software flavors (for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Update 2/64-bit or CentOS 4.2/64-bit).

The FalconStor VTL is available now; Enterprise Appliance pricing starts at $53,000. Visit the vendor's Web site for further information.