Deduplication: 8 Top Product Picks

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Depuplication has come a long way in the last few years, with all the big vendors (and the not so big, too) now offering a deduplication solution. Here are a handful to take a look at as you select a dedupe product:

1. Quantum DXi8500

Quantum’s DXi line of disk-based systems with built-in de-duplication consists of several products. The DXi8500, for example, is built for enterprisewide backup, disaster recovery and data protection. It provides up to 6.4TB/hour backup performance and up to 200TB usable capacity.

“Quantum uses variable length block technology, which allows for the most efficient data reduction technique,” said Mike Sparkes, product manager, enterprise disk systems for Quantum.

2. HP D2D4324

The HPD2D4324 Backup System uses the company’s StoreOnce deduplication technology.It provides up to 72 TB of usable capacity. With deduplication being sucha competitive arena, HP has improved its own deduplication algorithms tostore the index of deduplication files in memory and disk, as well as arrangingdata on disk in a better way.

“Sometimes we don’t even dedupe, as it is less efficient to do with certain types of files and degrades performance,” said Lee Johns, director of product marketing for Unified Storage, HP StorageWorks. “In those rare cases, we just compress them.”

3. EMC Avamar Data Store

There is a big argument in deduplication circles about the virtues of target-based deduplication versus source-based. EMC covers its bases by offering both options. On the source-based side, it has EMC Avamar. It deduplicates data before it is passed across the network. This is particularly good for VMware, remote offices and NAS, as well as in environments where bandwidth is constrained.

“Source-based is effective when you are seeking to maximize the efficiency of dedupe or when you need to dedupe before you transport data over the network,” said Mark Sorensen, senior vice president of the Enterprise Storage Division in EMC’s Storage Software Group.

There are several ways to deploy Avamar, but the fastest and easiest is probably EMC Avamar Data Store, which combines EMC hardware and Avamar backup and recovery software in one package. That saves companies figuring out how to deploy the software on existing hardware. The latest version of Avamar includes source-based deduplication on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and IBM Lotus Domino.

Read the rest about deduplication solutions at enterprisestorageforum.