The emerging technology of data deduplication promises to give
cash-strapped small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an
affordable way to move to disk-based data backup.
 | | | | | We're all aware of stories of
tapes disappearing or falling off the back of transport
trucks.
Heidi Biggar
analystEnterprise Strategy Group |
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The 451 Group, a New York-based research firm, has identified data
deduplication as one of the hottest emerging segments in the
storage and data protection industry.
"It's a technology that is applicable to just about any
business, whether it's large or small, because backup itself is a
highly redundant operation," said Simon Robinson, sector head for
storage and systems at The 451 Group.
Data deduplication is a method of reducing
storage requirements by eliminating redundant data. In a backup
and recovery system, gigabytes of information will be stored
over and over again at each backup, creating countless copies of
data that might change only incrementally over time. With data
deduplication, storage devices only store changes to that data.
Redundant data is replaced with a pointer to the unique data
copy.
According to a
new survey of 100 organizations by The 451
Group, only 23% are using data deduplication in their backup
and data protection infrastructure. However, 28% of nonadopters
said they plan to use it within six months, and another 23% said
they would adopt it within a year. Only 25% of nonadopters said
they had no plans to use it. Eighty percent of organizations
that had adopted the technology said it met or exceeded their
expectations.
Although the survey looked at organizations of all sizes,
Robinson said most of the early adopters of deduplicaton are in the
small to midsized market because "there is a higher level of
dissatisfaction with tape among that sized organization because it
is so difficult to manage. Whereas, in bigger organizations there
is more budget available and more established processes and
products available."
Robinson said SMBs "in particular have been poorly served by
incumbent technology. Tape backup is still a people-, time- and
money-intensive activity. And the fact that tape is also unreliable
and slow to restore from means many SMBs simply don't adequately
protect their core data. So if they can back up to disk rather than
tape, then it provides several strong benefits."
The problem for SMBs, Robinson said, is disk storage is still
relatively expensive when compared to tape. The cost of disk
capacity has dropped dramatically in recent years, but tape is
still cheaper. Data deduplication means SMBs can get more storage
capacity out of fewer hard drives, making the switch from tape to
disk more economically feasible.
Many SMBs have turned to online backup service providers, which
often leverage data deduplication technology to cut down on the
amount of data that has to pass over the wires during backups. But
many other SMBs are reluctant to entrust their data to a third
party.
"Online backup services I think have had a little bit of a
resurgence, but at the end of the day you can be throttled by
restore times, especially if you've had a catastrophe or if you've
got to restore your data over the wire," Amatruda said. "And there
are concerns about having your data completely out of your hands.
There is a certain comfort level you really have to have, and it's
a leap of faith that they are going to safeguard your data as
appropriately as you would."
Quantum Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based vendor best known for
its tape-based backup and recovery products, is banking on data
deduplication with its new GoVault Data Protection Solution 1600, a
removable-disk product aimed at SMBs.
"At the end of the day, especially in the entry-level, low-end
space, tape and even some removable hard drive products use
compression algorithms, but [Quantum is] bringing this data
reduction concept down to a new set of customers. The concept of
data compression is not new, but the concept of reducing redundant
data truly is," said Robert Amatruda, an analyst at Framingham,
Mass.-based IDC. "My suspicion is that low-end customers will be
attracted to that. Its value is to add more capacity without
actually having to purchase more capacity."
Heidi Biggar, an analyst at Milford, Mass.-based Enterprise
Strategy Group, said the data deduplication technology will reduce
the amount of memory cartridges SMBs need to buy for the GoVault
1600. Also, it "improves backup performance since you're only
storing changed data. Recovery can also be significantly faster,"
she said.
According to figures provided by Quantum, other removable-disk
backup devices aimed at SMBs cost between 95 cents and $2.50 per
gigabyte. By leveraging data deduplication on the GoVault 1600,
Quantum is able to get that cost down to 10 cents per gigabyte.
Finally, a disk-based product is cheaper than some of the leading
tape-based products, according to Quantum, which claims tape
devices aimed at SMBs run between 25 cents and $1.10 per
gigabyte.
the GoVault Data Protection Solution 800 (2 x40GB Cartridge
Solution) starts at $400. It replicates the backup to two
cartridges so one can be kept on site and the other can be taken to
another location. It's a Windows-based device packaged with data
deduplication, encryption and disaster recovery software, and it
comes with two removable cartridges with 40 GB of memory. Quantum
said users can buy higher-capacity cartridges up to 160 GB.
Biggar said the encryption feature will give users "peace of
mind."
"Removable-disk technologies like GoVault are pretty new. We're all
aware of stories of tapes disappearing or falling off the back of
transport trucks," she said.
Robinson said most major vendors are still working on
integrating data deduplication into their product roadmaps. There
is still a perception that the deduplication market is immature,
despite the high levels of satisfaction users have with the
technology.
"Deduplication has taken off a lot more quickly than companies
expected," Robinson said. "So a lot of companies have been caught
off guard a little bit, but we're seeing EMC moving into the space
and Symantec moving there, too. It's only a matter of time before
some of the other major players come into the market."
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Shamus McGillicuddy,
News Writer