Remember the sage advice that if you ever caught fire, you should immediately “stop, drop and roll?” Well, the concept of an all-in-one deduplicating virtual tape library (VTL) appliance is burning hot. So, when you stop to consider adding data deduplication for streamlined access, faster restores and longer-term retention of backup data—make sure you demand one that can drop (into place) and roll (into use) quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
Drop and Roll is the litmus test for deduplicating VTLs that are tailor-made for mid-range and distributed enterprise environments. The drop-in appliance approach is preferable to software-only solutions, which often entail complicated installations on target and/or host-side systems as well as additional resources for ongoing management. In contrast, VTL interfaces offer big advantages over disk or NAS targets in deduplicating backup data in terms of integration and ease of use. As a result, you should be able to install an integrated, deduplicating VTL in less than an hour—without requiring any modifications to application or backup servers.
Performing data deduplication on a VTL target is the simplest, most affordable method of identifying and eliminating redundant backup data. Some alternative approaches perform deduplication on the host where primary data is accessed. In theory, this sounds like an ideal place to handle deduplication, but in reality this approach requires modifications to each host and may also involve replacing existing backup software. In the long run, the exorbitant expense of modifying and maintaining all the host installations, and possibly replacing the backup infrastructure, renders this an unacceptable deduplication solution for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Data deduplication is the next big thing and there’s growing market validation that combining this intelligence with a purpose-built VTL appliance delivers the best of both worlds—the ability to store months of backup data on disk to substantially improve operational efficiencies while dramatically lowering data backup, recovery and long-term retention costs.
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Jeffrey Graham
Senior Product Manager