Backup mainframe data to object storage systems
Gil Peleg, Offer Baruch, Dori Polotsky · 2019
Mainframe systems backup and data archival is performed via proprietary data movement protocols to FICON-attached tape devices or virtual tape libraries using specialized backup software running on the mainframe operating system. These proprietary tape storage systems do not offer support for TCP/IP-attached storage solutions and for the standard protocols used to access these systems. The mainframe backup and archive software is tightly coupled with the tape architecture and by design writes data sets as a sequential, serial stream of data to tape. As the amounts of data in mainframe systems keep growing, the resource intensive backup and archive process become more expensive.