Quantum Leaps Into De-Duplication

Quantum jumped into the data de-duplication space today, unveiling a backup appliance with the compression technology it acquired from ADIC.

The Quantum DXi3500 and DXi5500 appliances use de-duplication software ADIC acquired from Rocksoft in March, two months before Quantum bought ADIC. (See Quantum Takes Tape Rival ADIC and ADIC in De-Dupe Deal.)

Not surprisingly, the first product from the combined tape library vendors is a disk-backup system. It lets Quantum offer the data de-duplication technology that industry insiders say disk-based backup products will require soon -- and that most vendors have recently added or are developing. (See Insider: De-Dupe Demystified and De-Dupers Lining Up.)

Data de-duplication eliminates multiple copies of the same file and repeated blocks or segments of data within those files. That reduces disk capacity and bandwidth required for backups.

The DXi3500 ships with four drives and customers can add another four, while the DXi5500 is a 12-drive configuration with the option of adding 12 additional drives. Both products are available as NAS heads with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, or as virtual tape libraries (VTLs) with Fibre Channel or iSCSI connectivity.