DNS Arrow opens new VTL facility

Distributor DNS Arrow has opened Europe's first IBM Virtual Tape Library 7520 (VTL) facility in London to showcase the product to partners and end users.

The VTL 7250 is available for pre-booked demonstrations with a DNS consultant and completes the distributor’s virtualisation offerings, which now include tape, disk, storage, SAN and desktops.
Allister Richardson, business development manger for IBM storage team at DNS Arrow, said: “VTL is the next step for virtualisation and a growth area for both DNS, its reseller partners and IBM.
“IBM’s VTL is another part of DNS’s virtualisation puzzle and another example of our investment in the channel.”
Andrew Fitzgerald, UK ISA storage brand manager at IBM, said: “DNS Arrow is the first company in the UK to do this and IBM is looking forward to customers taking advantage of this new technology.”
The facility follows the distributor’s acquisition of Centia in September last year and subsequent status as a VMware Authorised Training Centre (VATC).
Richardson added: “IBM’s product is a natural progression for DNS to get the whole range of solutions for its partners.”
He explained that the 7250 protects sensitive customer information by encrypting data once it has been backed up on virtual tape.
However, Jon Collins, service director at analyst house Freeform Dynamics, said VTL is useful when used in the right environment, but when integrated with virtualisation it could be more of a challenge because VTL is more tangible.
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