Deduplication

Data capacity growth is not going to subside and, unfortunately, data protection processes, such as backup, magnify the problem. It makes sense for organizations to employ tactics and technology to optimize this environment—without sacrificing performance or introducing risk with recovery practices.

ESG believes that data deduplication has emerged as a compelling technology that helps organizations to control storage capacity and costs in backup operations. Data deduplication examines data and identifies redundant files or segments of files, and then eliminates that redundancy. Less data is stored, saving disk storage capacity. The savings can enable longer retention of data or forestall the expense of additional capacity. It can even optimize network bandwidth and speed backups, improving protection and creating efficiencies, since less data is moved from site to site.

For more information, read the ESG resources we've included here on deduplication, which includes two ESG White Papers—one on how disk-based backup has changed the face of data protection, and the other an examination of the benefits of using EMC Disk Libraries with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager—and a video of Lauren Whitehouse speaking about the EMC Avamar deduplication solution. Be sure also to click on the ESG Research graphic to see the ranking of the top storage related initiatives by enterprise organizations citing cost reduction as a major factor impacting storage spending.