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ShareDedupe Wars: Quantum, NEC Extend Deduping Capabilities
Posted by Paul Travis on June 2, 2009
While the two largest independent storage vendors battle for control of Data Domain and its data deduplication technology, other storage vendors on Monday tried to stake out their own turf in the deduping wars. The move Monday by EMC to outbid NetApp for ownership of Data Domain shows how important deduplication technology is becoming to storage systems. Data deduplication announcements by Quantum, NEC and FalconStor also show that they are not willing to give ground on this issue.
Most storage vendors offer some form of data deduplication, which eliminates redundant copies of files and data and stories only a single copy, using pointers or markers to connect back to the stored or backed up file. Deduping can take place in a variety of locations in a storage infrastructure (primary, secondary or tape storage) and vendors argue over the best way to employ the technology (in-line, post-processing). It has become popular for backup and archiving systems as it can substantially reduce the amount of data that needs to be storage and the storage capacity a business needs to buy. Now, vendors are trying to argue that they have better data deduplication technology than their rivals.
"The data deduplication market has grown up," said Arun Taneja, founder of consultancy Taneja Group. "Just having deduping is not enough today. It has become mainstream technology and differentiation is going to start to make a difference."
Quantum expanded its line of storage systems with data deduping on Monday by introducing an appliance for remote and branch offices and a new version of its management software. NEC said it improved its deduplication capabilities by adding content awareness to its software. And FalconStor said its systems can store, dedupe, replicate and restore data faster than competitive systems.
Quantum added the DXi2500-D for remote offices to a product line that includes the DX-7500 Enterprise for data centers, the DXi7500 Express for mid-sized sites and the DXi3500 for small and mid-sized businesses. The new device can ingest data at 300 GTb per hour and offers RAID 6 for data protection, the company said. It also provides replication and OST support and can substantially reduce bandwidth needs.
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