At HIMSS07 in New Orleans, Network Appliance Inc. highlighted its NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL), a disk-to-disk backup appliance that appears like a tape library to a backup software application but provides the superior speed and reliability of disk technologies. Developed specifically to address the requirements of backup administrators, NearStore VTL solutions increase the performance and reliability of backups, simplify backup management, and reduce disk-to-disk storage costs by up to 67 percent through the use of high-performance disk compression. The NearStore VTL is designed to reduce management costs and dramatically improves backup and recovery performance while leveraging existing investments in infrastructure, backup software, and processes.

For “hospitals struggling with issues of tape, the VTL is phenomenal,” said Al Boulanger, global industry manager. The VTL is a deep archiving solution particularly designed for needs associated with imaging and electronic records. And, the solution requires little manpower to manage. Boulanger said it is “a great horizontal solution that covers all aspects within hospitals.”

Boulanger said booth visitors were primarily concerned about the increasing need for storage, mostly due to email and imaging, and security. NetApp prides itself on providing products that are not just a point solution, he said. With increasing storage needs, Boulanger said the equipment is getting extremely intelligent. To respond to need, NetApp is building a team that can focus on patients and customers.