When used appropriately Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL) can have a dramatic effect on your backup window. VTL uses disk array technology to deliver fast data backups which, from within your backup software, looks, feels and behaves just like physical tape drives.
Modern tape technology like LTO has tremendous capacities and speed – if used in the right way. If you are able to stream data at high speeds and continuously then physical tape can be blisteringly fast – big databases are perfect for streaming to physical tape.
VTL comes into it’s own when there are lots of files to backup. Effective use of caching and de-duplication technology maximises the throughput and ensure VTL space is used in the most effective way.