dedupe

Data deduplication is a topic being asked about by our customers, and being discussed in the media, more and more. Would you like to know Dell’s take on it?

In the video below, Darren Thomas, vice president and general manager of Dell's storage business, discusses Dell’s view on the future of this technology and what we are doing to help deliver solutions to meet your data management needs. (If you'd like to download the slides in this video, they are available on Dell's Slideshare account here.)

We are announcing enhancements to our deduplication portfolio, both in services to help you understand holistically how you might benefit from de-duplication, as well as in products that help address your storage challenges. That's the conversation should be about -- how you can best solve your problems related to data growth, protection and access.

Dell views deduplication as a feature of storage, one that may help you optimize your investments in data management. However, it's not the only one to accomplish this goal. Our view is that deduplication it is not, by itself, a solution.

Deduplication can be implemented in different ways, whether through dedicated appliances or through integration into existing areas, such as in backup software.

Dell's view is that an integrated approach -- a feature of your software -- provides the greatest benefits to you. In this way, deduplication becomes ubiquitous across many aspects of the data path, from applications through operating systems and backup, where it is focused today. We are helping to drive this evolution.

Before you can decide which approach to take to optimize your storage, though, you need to understand your unique needs and environment. Dell deduplication services can help. Our services teams can assess your needs, provide recommendations and implement solutions, whatever they may be – instead of just figuring out how to make a single approach work.

For more information on deduplication, I'd encourage you to take a look at www.dell.com/deduplication.

And if you have a more technical focus or appetite, I invite you to join us next week at Dell TechCenter for a live chat on this topic.

Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about server technology in this blog, but storage is an equally important component of how to Simplify and Save with IT. And we’ve got important news.

A few weeks ago, we announced a new commitment to dramatically simplify de-duplication via a single de-duplication architecture across our PowerVault EqualLogic and Dell/EMC product families.

The very practice of de-duping simplifies data management by eliminating redundant copies of data… residing in multiple applications… on multiple hardware products. It saves money by reducing the amount of storage capacity required for back-up, with compression ratios that can range from 10:1 to as high as 30:1. De-duping also reduces the amount of network bandwidth required, especially during back-up or archiving.

With the compatibility that comes with a common architecture, customers will now find it much easier to replicate and de-duplicate data across multiple sites, from departments or branch offices to the data center. They will spend less time and effort, and also benefit from the cost reductions that non-proprietary technology always provides over the long term.

To further simplify de-duping, Dell offers a full range of services to help customers assess their current situation, design a comprehensive de-duplication solution and then implement it.

For more details, please check out the vlog below.

Alex McDonald at Netapp made a few snarky comments today about Dell's acquisition of EqualLogic.  As if Netapp should be casting stones about anybody else's acquisitions.  Anybody remember Spinnaker?  Dell has made very rapid progress with EqualLogic and now Netapp is desperate to find ways to compete. 

But I should really thank Alex for reminding me to post about our partnership with Exagrid for de-duplication functionality.  Exagrid has excellent technology and they are fast gaining recognition and traction with their products - including their ExaGrid iSCSI De-duplication Gateway™.  

FWIW, Alex linked to this post of mine on Storage@work from last March , to support his assertion we would never have a de-dupe solution. Hmmm....  maybe he was speed reading beyond his limits.  Whatever - I guess he missed the context where our partner Exagrid was preparing to announce their dedupe appliance for iSCSI.