De-Dupers Lining Up

4:30 PM -- We have yet another new entrant in the de-duplication derby.

Next week, Sepaton will demonstrate DeltaStor de-duplication software for its virtual tape libraries (VTLs) at Symantec Visions. The compression technology has been a hot topic lately. Last month, ADIC purchased Australian startup Rocksoft for its data de-dupe capabilities, and Symantec rolled out the first product based on its 2005 acquisition of startup Data Center Technologies. (See ADIC in De-Dupe Deal, Symantec Dips Into De-Dupe, and De-Dupe Streamlines Backup.)

But unlike tomorrow's Kentucky Derby, the de-dupe derby will take a lot longer than a couple minutes. In fact, the de-dupe horses are just getting into the starting gate. In many cases, they're still jostling for post position. Sepaton's DeltaStor isn't in beta yet, and won't be available before the fourth quarter. Symantec's first version of PureDisk is for remote offices, and its roadmap calls for gradual integration into its NetBackup enterprise backup platform. Who knows how long it will take Rocksoft technology to become shipping product? It sometimes takes years for companies to turn acquired code into product, and now the Rocksoft software is going through a double integration following Quantum's purchase of ADIC. (See Quantum Takes Tape Rival ADIC.)

While startup backup vendors Asigra and Avamar, and appliance startup Data Domain have had data de-duplication for a while and Diligent added it to its VTLs in January, most backup and VTL vendors haven't even gotten started. (See De-Dupers Demand Disk Mindset.)

Of course, they will. Analyst Arun Taneja of the Taneja Group maintains that within a year, data de-duplication will be mandatory for data protection products "or you're going to have a serious problem selling to customers."Until then, there will be plenty of arguments about where data de-duplication should be done, and which vendor gets what compression rate. From the customers' standpoint, the bottom line is how it improves their backups.

Dan Doherty, IT systems operations manager of Cambridge Health Alliance, says he's looking forward to DeltaStor in hopes of extending the shelf life of his Sepaton library.

"Disks are getting bigger, but the amount of data you back up grows at a phenomenal rate these days," he says. "This will put new life into our virtual tape library."

Doherty says data de-duplication will also help if he sets up another Sepaton library at a disaster recovery site, which CHA is considering doing. "We have a couple of hundred of gigabytes to transfer over the wire, with [DeltaStor's] byte level differencing, that could become a couple of hundred megabytes or a couple of gigabytes to transfer."

Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and SwitchOrganizations mentioned in this article: