Patent ID: 7853764

Claim:
A method comprising: in an open systems environment wherein a plurality of backup hosts are connected to a plurality of virtual tape library servers (VTL servers) which in turn are connected to each of a plurality of disk library units (DLUs) thus providing scalable connectivity at both the front ends of the plurality of VTL servers to the plurality of hosts and at the back ends of the plurality of VTL servers to the plurality of DLUs, and wherein data is sent directly from the hosts to the VTL servers without intermediate disk cache or intermediate disk staging areas, each VTL server being adapted to receive tape storage commands, and in response to receiving a tape storage command, the respective VTL server: accepting the tape storage command and responding as if the VTL server were the respective target tape storage device; and emulating the respective target tape storage device by converting the received tape storage command to at least one disk storage command for implementing the received tape storage command with one or more disk storage devices, wherein the step of emulating includes providing a model describing a tape library including tape drive devices, including the emulated target tape storage device, whereby the VTL server emulates the tape drive devices, wherein data simultaneously streaming from the plurality of backup hosts is received by multiple of the servers, where the multiple VTL servers receiving the simultaneously streamed data write to the same DLU.