While deduplication has been around for some time, it’s not a technology commonly used by IBM i deployments. The traditional backup tools such as BRMS, SAV21, etc do not have deduplication and administrators have become accustomed to how they work. In classic deployments where it’s an on-prem data center backup up to tape, this has not presented an overly difficult or expensive setup. However, more and more organizations are opting to move their IBM i workloads to IBM PowerVS cloud, which sets up a whole different economic structure. The typical backup environment suggests you allocate three times your raw data quantity for backup, which can translate to a hefty monthly bill of either PowerVS block storage, the less-expensive IBM Cloud Object Storage, or a combination.
This is where FalconStor StorSafe Virtual Tape Library comes in. StorSafe VTL is software that emulates physical tape libraries and drives, and works with the native IBM i backup tools, to optimize backup either on-premises, hybrid deployment, or in the cloud, both IBM PowerVS and IBM Cloud. StorSafe VTL has patented deduplication and advanced compression that can reduce the amount of backup storage needed by up to 95%. For IBM i environments we default to a 20:1 deduplication ratio to calculate both sizing and savings, based on our experience with these environments. (Just a caveat: your mileage may vary; media files or encrypted data won’t dedup much, every environment is unique.) This means that whatever the amount of raw data, the backup storage needed will be only 5% of that amount.
Let’s take a look at an example, and use our new PowerVS Savings Tool to calculate savings.
PowerVS Block Storage
Let’s say you have IBM i in PowerVS today, with a total raw data volume of 100TB today residing and being backed up in block storage.
Without FalconStor StorSafe VTL:
Block Storage Backup Costs in PowerVS: $104.50 / TB / month
100TB data = $10,450 / month backup storage
With FalconStor StorSafe VTL:
With FalconStor StorSafe VTL data is reduced from 100TB to a StorSafe Repository of only 5TB, resulting in savings of 88.7% in monthly PowerVS backup data storage costs.
Adding StorSafe VTL would lower your PowerVS bill from $10,450 / month, to just $1180.85 / month, or from $125,400 per year to only $14,170.02 per year!
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Let’s say that same 100TB raw data is being backed up to IBM Cloud Object Storage. COS is a less expensive option, coming in at $23.54 / TB / month; the Savings Tool can help us calculate this too.
Without FalconStor StorSafe VTL:
Cloud Object Storage: $23.54 / TB / month
100TB data = $2354 / month backup storage
With FalconStor StorSafe VTL:
With FalconStor StorSafe VTL data is still reduced from 100TB to a StorSafe Repository of only 5TB, resulting in savings of 50.1% in COS backup data storage costs.
Repository size as noted is still 5TB; deduplication ratio is consistent as well at 20:1, and even with the reduced cost of COS the addition of StorSafe VTL results in substantial savings.
Adding StorSafe VTL would lower your PowerVS bill from $2354 / month, to just $1174.65 / month, or from $28,248 per year to only $14,095.80 per year!
Why pay more for the exact same thing you’re using today? If you’d like to know what you could be saving in your PowerVS, COS, or a combination, backup data storage, check out the PowerVS Savings Tool.
