Quantum Announces Two Data Deduplication And Disaster Recovery Products For SMBs

In what's turning out to be a busy month for Quantum, the company is announcing two data deduplication and disaster recovery products intended for the small and midsize business market. The Quantum NDX-8 NAS appliance includes 8 Tbytes of network-attached storage with built-in backup software and deduplication technology. The RDX 8000 removable disk library also includes 8 Tbytes of capacity, but offers the storage by way of removable cartridges that can be stored offsite for disaster recovery protection. The advantage of both the products is that they offer a disk-based solution to the SMB and provide both hardware and software from a single vendor.

No other vendor has really designed a backup appliance for the SMB with a reasonable capacity--that is, of more than 1 Tbyte or so, says John Goode, director of the devices product line for the San Jose, Calif.-based company. He notes that 20% to 25% of the NAS market in this space is being used for backup. The optional deduplication functionality also helps enable organizations to control their data growth while they move into disk-based backup, he says. The NDX 8 is currently intended for Microsoft Windows but will offer a Linux agent next year.

The advantage of the RDX 8000 is that it uses removable cartridges that act like the tape system that the SMB might already be using, and that can be used for offsite disaster recovery, Goode says. In addition, the system is scalable, offering cartridges that range from 160 Gbytes to 1 Tbyte, and it will grow as technology advances to produce cartridges with more capacity, he says. It is available with Symantec Backup Exec backup software or with Quantum’s Datastor Shield deduplication softwarefor those organizations that want to do deduplication. Deduplication results in a 90% reduction in network traffic and backup data stored, and uses two-thirds fewer cartridges than tape while costing 75% less than Backup Exec, he says.

"From a Quantum standpoint, it’s very positive," says Robert Amatruda, research director of data protection and recovery for IDC. "Quantum really sees the trend of these products being used in the SMB space, and the preponderance of disk-based products is growing. Plus, they’re supporting two usage models--one for using NAS-based products in the SMB environment and one that supports removable media, which I think is still very important because you can employ an offsite disaster recovery strategy. It augments the tape products they sell." He also praises Quantum’s offering of the Datastor Shield product, which he thinks is important as data volumes continue to grow at every level and the fact that the products bundle hardware and software.

The RDX 8000 Removable Disk Library is scheduled to start shipping next week. It costs $3,889 with Backup Exec and $4,999 with Datastor Shield. Cartridges are extra. The NDX 8-Series NAS Appliances are also scheduled to start shipping next week. NDX 8d Data Protection includes Datastor Shield and costs $5,139, while NDX 8 Primary Storage costs $4,029.

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