For many IBM i environments, backup and recovery expectations have changed significantly over the past several years. Data volumes continue to grow, recovery timelines are tighter, and IT teams are increasingly being asked to do more with less operational overhead.
At the same time, many organizations are finding that traditional tape processes are becoming harder to manage efficiently. Physical media handling, aging tape hardware, lengthy backup windows, offsite transportation, and recovery concerns continue to create operational friction for IBM i administrators and IT leaders.
Recently, we asked several current LaserVault ViTL customers to share short comments about their real-world experiences after moving from physical tape to virtual tape for IBM i backup and recovery. While every environment is different, several common themes appeared consistently across industries and organization sizes.
Faster Backups and Reduced Operational Delays
One of the most common observations involved backup performance and time savings. Many organizations noted that moving away from traditional tape helped reduce backup windows while simplifying daily operations.
Brad Acree, IT Manager at McVean Investments, shared:
“We have been using the VITL product for over 7 years. It has been a great experience in that our save and restore times were dramatically faster.”
A Financial Services Company reported:
“Our backup speeds have been cut in half, even with the offsite replication.”
Others emphasized the operational simplicity that came along with those improvements.
Kerry from the City of Bryan, Texas noted:
“Since switching from tape, the biggest benefit has been time saved and ease of use.”
For many IBM i teams, reducing backup duration is only part of the equation. Simplifying the day-to-day management of backup operations can have an equally meaningful impact.
Eliminating the Challenges of Physical Tape
Another theme that appeared repeatedly was the operational burden associated with managing physical tapes, tape libraries, and offsite handling.
The System Administrator at a Transportation Management Company described several pain points that disappeared after implementing ViTL:
“No more tape I/O errors. No more using multiple tapes when saving and restoring one large library. Gone are the days of driving to our offsite tape vault.”
Newell Brands echoed a similar sentiment:
“Not having to deal with tape libraries, tape drives and tapes has been a definite benefit.”
For some organizations, the value came not only from eliminating manual processes, but from reducing the risks associated with physical media transportation.
A Financial Services Company explained:
“We all know physically transferring tapes has its own risk, and that risk has been removed with the ability to replicate offsite.”
These kinds of operational improvements often become increasingly important as IT departments look to modernize infrastructure while minimizing administrative overhead.
Improving Recovery Confidence and Disaster Recovery Readiness
Several customers also highlighted improved confidence in their backup and disaster recovery posture.
A CIO in the Foodservice Industry summarized it simply:
“Leveraging ViTL enhanced my DR posture.”
Others pointed to reliability as one of the biggest long-term benefits.
Rosanne Nelson, ITPM Infrastructure & Operations Manager at VSAC, shared:
“After using ViTL for over 5 years now, the biggest ongoing benefit has been not only the dependability of their product, but the support they provide is top notch!”
Reliability and consistency were recurring themes across many of the responses, particularly from organizations that had been using virtual tape for multiple years.
An Executive Manager of IT at Foster’s noted:
“We have used the LaserVault ViTL solution for the past 3 years, and it continues to simplify our backup strategy, while affording faster backups vs traditional tape storage.”
The same customer also highlighted the growing importance of security protections within backup environments:
“The seamless encryption in data in transit and at rest, is also a huge safeguard bonus.”
Long-Term Simplicity Matters
Interestingly, many of the strongest comments came from customers who have been using ViTL for years rather than months. Their feedback focused less on initial implementation and more on the long-term operational consistency the platform provided.
Derek Matlock of Imperial Trading shared:
“It has made our backup routine almost unnoticeable by continuing to run, working great with IBM’s BRMS.”
Eric Tanner, IT Manager at the City of Venice, put it even more directly:
“I would never want to go back to using tape!”
For many IBM i teams, that may be one of the clearest indicators of successful modernization — backup operations become quieter, simpler, and less disruptive to daily IT responsibilities.
Supporting Broader Data Protection Strategies
A few customers also commented on how ViTL integrates into broader data protection environments, including deduplication and replication strategies.
Ioan Pop of Hillman Group shared:
“ViTL and Cohesity have been solid, dependable components of our data protection strategy and day-to-day operations.”
ABC Financial Services added:
“ViTL does a good job emulating IBM tape libraries…and it is working well with our IBM i and Cohesity appliance.”
These types of deployments reflect how many IBM i organizations are modernizing incrementally — integrating virtual tape into existing backup, replication, cloud, and storage optimization initiatives rather than replacing everything at once.
What These Experiences Suggest
While every IBM i environment has unique operational requirements, the feedback shared by these organizations points to several broader trends:
- Faster backup and restore performance
- Reduced dependency on physical tape handling
- Improved operational simplicity
- Better disaster recovery readiness
- Greater confidence in backup reliability
- Easier integration into modern data protection strategies
Perhaps most importantly, many of these comments came from long-term users who continue to rely on virtual tape as part of their everyday IBM i operations years after implementation.
As IBM i teams continue looking for ways to modernize infrastructure while simplifying backup and recovery management, the operational experiences shared by current users offer valuable real-world perspective on what that transition can look like in practice.
If you are looking at ways to strengthen IBM i resilience and seamlessly streamline daily operations, checkout LaserVault or email ax@laservault.com for more information.
About LaserVault
For over 35 years, LaserVault (Electronic Storage Corporation) has been building reliable software solutions for IBM Power Systems. Our team combines deep technical experience with responsive support to help businesses and resellers get exactly what they need—fast.
We also partner with IBM, Cohesity, Rubrik, ExaGrid, Pure Storage and other technical experts to deliver trusted, modern solutions.
Visit laservault.com or email info@laservault.com to request a quote, schedule a demo, or ask about our reseller program.
LaserVault / Electronic Storage Corporation
ax@laservault.com
918-640-2630
