CA 1 Tape Management offers comprehensive data storage and retrieval solutions, streamlining tape management processes.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| CA 1 Tape Management | 5.5% |
| NetApp OnCommand Insight | 7.9% |
| SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor | 6.9% |
| Other | 79.7% |
As a leading tool in data storage management, CA 1 Tape Management addresses complex storage needs with robust scalability and reliability. Designed for efficiency, it integrates seamlessly into existing IT frameworks, facilitating streamlined operations through enhanced automation and security features.
What features define CA 1 Tape Management?In industries such as finance and healthcare, CA 1 Tape Management is deployed to manage extensive data archives efficiently. Its implementation ensures secure, rapid access to critical information, supporting industry compliance and operational effectiveness within large-scale IT environments.
CA 1 Tape Management was previously known as BrightStor Tape Management.
TravelPort, AlphaServe, Rogers Communication
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Mainframe System Programmer at Türkiye İş Bankası | 5.0 | I use CA 1 Tape Management to handle virtual tape volumes, and I find it easy to use. However, the pricing could be improved. I have not used or considered any other solutions or cloud providers for this purpose. |
| z/OS system Programmer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees | 5.0 | I value its tape and vault management for daily offsite transfers. The solution is stable and scalable, with excellent customer service. I wish installation, customization, and upgrading without restarting were smoother. Avoid exits. |
| Systems Administrator at SunTrust Banks, Inc. | 5.0 | I consider CA 1 Tape the best, most comprehensive tape management solution, offering excellent stability, scalability, and customer service. While installation is complex, its vital features for creation, retention, and reporting make it indispensable for our shop. |
| Mainframe Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees | 4.5 | We use CA 1 for highly stable, automatic tape management, archiving, and database backup/restore, which greatly streamlined our processes. However, integrating it with non-CA vendor products is difficult due to requiring custom configurations. |
| Information Systems Specialist at a government | 5.0 | I consider CA 1 the industry standard for reliable tape management, crucial for our DR. Its exceptional stability, continuous improvements, and outstanding support make it a valuable partnership, despite minor documentation needs. |
| Mainframe Storage Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees | 4.0 | I find CA 1 invaluable for backup management, being stable, scalable, and easy to use, even after 20 years. Its intake management is excellent, though error detection and reporting need improvement. |
We use the solution to manage virtual tape volumes.
The solution is easy to use.
The solution's pricing could be better.
We have been using the solution for eight years.
I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten.
We have 20 solution users in our organization. Also, we plan to increase its usage.
The solution's technical support is good.
The solution is easy to implement.
The solution's price needs improvement.
I recommend the solution to others and rate it a ten out of ten.
We move tapes to a second location on a daily basis. The Vault Management function keeps track of where a tape should be and tells the operators which tapes should be sent offsite, and which ones should return.
Tape management, Vault management
Installation and customization could be improved. Upgrading to a new version without restarting the system would be a great improvement.
We have had no issues with its performance.
There have been no issues with scaling it.
It's excellent.
I wasn't involved in the initial installation.
Avoid using exits, if you can.
Tape management.
Tape Management is as vital to a shop as anything else. It has more features than I could name, but no other tape product is better. CA 1 Tape is a complete package that manages all of your tapes. Create/write/catalog, retention, delete. There are queries and reports, which are needed to know when/where/length keeping, etc., in order to track them or find out current status. Each of these functions is managed for every tape there is, one being required for the next. Each is a bit more involved than it may seem, but 100% necessary.
Beyond these functions, each of them vital, are "fix" types of jobs. These are not a daily thing, but if anything is broken such as pointers, then we would need to get a copy of the pointers and follow them backward and forward to fix it/them. Literally everything about the product is great!
Now that I think about it, CA 1 Tape did introduce, in 14.0, a new group of functions in CTS that could be used or not. We do not because we have other things in place. The messages/alerts it can watch for would be handy, we just haven’t set it up.
No issues with stability.
No issues with scalability.
They are "prime time," absolutely the best.
The product itself is fairly complex so the install is as well.
It has been around for years. It came from UCCEL (and I was working way back then).
It is the best out there, but planning is essential.
It's for archiving our files and databases. It's for managing our sites. We're using a virtual mainframe library, and we interface it with this product.
It has become easy to backup and archive all our system data and financial data. It helps us mainly in managing the backup of our databases, and it is easy to retrieve that data and find it in a secure place. It has become easy to locate the data and to secure it.
Before we started using CA 1, we used manual tape management. It's a big machine. We would insert the tape manually. After we bought a virtual library, we were able to interface it with this product. It's pretty difficult to configure the interfaces and CA 1. But when it is done, it's very stable, since we don't touch it again. Now that we interface it with this virtual tape, it has become automatic. The tapes are mounted automatically. You can read a tape automatically without waiting for someone to insert it. That has helped us a lot.
The manual management of the tape was harder for us because we have a lot of tapes. With the product, it all becomes automatic: locating the data, backing up the data, restoring the data. We can automate all that with the product.
Mainly, we use the product to manage the tapes. It's so stable that we only use the graphical interface of the virtual tapes. Sometimes we use it to review some files to see the status of our archives. Mainly, we use it for backup and restoring our data.
When we want to interface the CA 1 product with other vendors, IBM or others, it is difficult to interface it with them, because you need some exits, you need to compile some assemblers. It is difficult to interface it with different vendors other than CA technologies.
The stability is 10 out of 10.
Scalability is eight out of 10.
Tech support is a 10 out of 10.
The first solution that we had was CA Dynam/T. It was on z/VSE. When we switched to z/OS, the only choice that we had with CA technology was CA 1.
It was simple.
I don't have any idea about pricing, my manager takes care of it.
We looked at IBM RMM, but we didn't choose it.
It's very stable. From the day we started using the product, we haven't needed to touch it. It works fine.
At this point, we use it a lot for our DR and our business continuity stuff, our tape management, which is what we heavily rely on it for. To me, the CA 1 tool is the industry standard. I personally enjoy the fact that I get great support from CA. They're actively giving new improvements with every release and, really, the stability of it. I've had zero problems since I've installed it, so it's been great.
The stability has improved my organization. It's reliable. In our line of work, we need to be able to recover things; and being able to rely on a product and know that it's going to work. We don't even think twice about it.
Providing areas with room for improvement is a tough one because it really is the industry standard. It's such a good tool. At this point, I think I need a little bit better understanding, to be honest, on some of the stuff that they do with it. The documentation would really, in my opinion, be a better improvement to the product. The software itself works great. I need a little bit more understanding on how they've architected it. I can open up a ticket. I get that understanding provided. It'd be nice to have it a little bit upfront.
But other than that, I can't really think of anything. The product itself is so reliable, and so stable, and does exactly what we need it to do, so it's kind of hard to think about how I would improve it.
.
We've been using the latest version, 12.6, now for about two-and-a-half years.
Technical support is 100%. It's the best I've worked with. I've worked with other vendors on other products and since I inherited the CA 1 product and the support that came along with CA 1, if I have any issues, questions, I use the Communities site that CA has put in place, along with their ticketing and support staff. I kind of use both. I use the communities, the other people who use the products, which is great. That's one of the best things that CA's done is set up user communities, so you don't just rely on support staff. You can actually rely on people who use the product.
I don't really even know of any other tape management vendors, to be honest. There is an ASG vendor. They don't have the best reputation, with me, anyway.
I have given it a perfect rating because of how well it has worked for us. I really don't have issues with it. When it comes to maintenance, when it comes to getting an upgrade or any of those things, they work with you, they work for you. It truly seems like a partnership, not just a business transaction. It seems more of a partnership. It's great.
Reputation is the first thing I look for when selecting a vendor. CA; they're the standard. As a mainframer, when I think mainframe and software, I think CA 1. They're the first solution I go to look for. And because I've had an experience with them at other places I've worked and where I'm working now, that reputation has followed. Nothing's changed. It's got a good reputation everywhere we go.
Their support is outstanding. At a recent CA conference, there were people working in booths who were currently doing a conversion on another one of our CA products. We were there, we could talk to them, and they would give us any time we need. It's amazing.
My primary job is to make backups, backups a lot of backups. So being able to find out about where my data is, where my files are, and what tapes are used, is very valuable to me.
CA 1 is our intake management system, and it's just a one of the best products out there. I have worked with other ones like IBM, but CA 1 is the best. And it's easy to use.
Sometimes it doesn't detect all chaining errors and the reporting on them could be improved as well.
We've used it for over 20 years.
CA 1 is stable all the time.
Very scalable. No problem.
I haven't had to use them.
I wasn't involved in the setup.
CA 1 I'm sure 90% of the world uses it.
