Home > Storage > PowerMax and VMAX > Mainframe > Dell PowerMax: Data Protector for z Systems (zDP) Best Practices > Summary
SnapVX and zDP for mainframe local replication technology was introduced with the VMAX3 generation of Symmetrix family in early 2016. Before VMAX3 local replication was full volume BCV or Clones that largely restricted customer usage to one or two local copies. Initially, SnapVX allowed a maximum of 256 snapshots of a device. As of 2019, the number of zDP snapsets per device is enhanced to allow up to 1,024 snapshots. Today, we see customers using TimeFinder SnapVX snapshots and zDP Snapsets for these business reasons:
Implementation of zDP can provide a level of protection from pervasive logical corruption that was previously unavailable to mainframe customers. Having a copy of data available that was close to the point of corruption enables rapid recovery and faster resumption of normal processing. Data restoration from tape media can be eliminated, and recovery processing can be performed far more rapidly since very recent data can be used in the recovery process.
zDP has helped to usher in a new discipline within business continuity planning: cyber recovery. Like its cousin, disaster recovery, cyber recovery uses extra copies of data to provide business value but does so to provide protection from a new risk, cyberattack. zDP was the first product to provide this protection, and solutions to aid in rapid recovery will continue to evolve to meet changing requirements for business continuity.