Standalone Backup on another disk

[Brad McCusker]

>though backups take all night

I'll bet they do. 

Virtualization would help a lot there too.  Use a virtual tape drive that writes "tapes" (container files actually) out on your corporate SAN (or a local Windows/Linux drive).  Then let the enterprise backup tool come along and backup those "tapes" in accordance with the enterprise policies.  Gets you out of the tape handling business completely.  You still use the same VMS backup tools and procedures that you use today.  Recovery is as simple as asking the enterprise folks to restore your "tape" file, and then mount it in VMS (just as you would any tape) and restore. 

Virtualization isn't cheap, but I can't believe those maintenance contracts are cheap either.  If you haven't had some serious discussions with a vendor about virtualizing those systems, lately, you should.

Full Disclosure:  We sell CHARON VAX emulation solutions.

Brad McCusker

Software Concepts International

www.sciinc.com