NetApp have announced the integration of NetApp® SnapMirror® to Tape and SnapshotTM technologies with IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager (TSM) 6. As a result, NetApp and IBM customers using TSM 6 will experience enhanced backup and disaster recovery capabilities for data stored on NetApp FAS and IBM System Storage® N series storage devices.

TSM 6 leverages NetApp SnapMirror to Tape technology, enabling customers to use TSM Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) support to back up FAS and IBM N series volumes directly to tape or across the network to any tape device managed by TSM. This can be done without having to scan each volume to find new and changed files, helping reduce the amount of time customers need to back up their FAS and IBM N series systems, which can make the backup process up to 12 times faster.

TSM 6 also leverages NetApp Snapshot technology to reduce progressive incremental file backup time by comparing the current backup Snapshot copy with the previous backup Snapshot copy to identify new, changed, and deleted files. Traditional backup scans of large file systems can take hours.  TSM 6, together with NetApp Snapshot technology, completes the identification of new, changed, and deleted files in seconds, drastically reducing the amount of time customers need to complete NetApp file system backups with TSM.

"The improvements in Tivoli Storage Manager 6 are all about keeping ahead of the tidal wave of data growth. Integrating new NetApp Snapshot technology and SnapMirror to Tape technology with the latest version of our TSM software enables us to provide our customers with much improved backup performance, even as their data volumes continue to grow," said Kelly Beavers, director, IBM Storage Software. "The ability to reduce the time it takes for incremental backups and creating an improved capability to perform file-level restores will instantly benefit NetApp customers who upgrade to TSM 6."