NEWSLETTER - DEDUPLICATION STORAGE FOR SAFEGUARDING DATA AND ENSURING RAPID RECOVERY

Traditional data protection applications are struggling to keep pace with the demands for ultra-high data availability and the growing requirements for nearly instantaneous recovery. The factors behind this are:

High cost of managing large volumes of backup data - With lower cost disk technologies, disk-to-disk backup has become a viable option for backup storage to replace tape. However, backup storage requires 5 to 10 times the primary storage it is protecting. As a result, disk is still too expensive for extended retention and it serves as a mere front-end to the existing tape infrastructure
Unreliable, slow recoveries - Using disk as a cache to tape solves only the half of the backup and recovery problem - fast backups to meet shrinking backup windows. Recoveries must still come from unreliable, highly manual tapes. Since the purpose of backups is to recover and resume business as quickly as possible, conventional disk-based backup systems do not meet this objective
Remote office data at risk - According to the Enterprise Strategy Group, remote offices account for 30% of corporate data. Protecting remote office data with tape infrastructure is even more challenging as remote offices often lack dedicated IT staff to manage the cumbersome tape infrastructure

Fortunately, cost-effective help is at hand with Data Domain deduplication storage systems. Data de-duplication operates at a block level to find and eliminate redundant data. When a storage device that uses data de-duplication technology sees a repeated block of data, it stores a pointer instead of storing the block again. Because it works at a block level, it is much more powerful than single-instance store technology that looks for duplicate files.

Data Domain deduplication storage systems

Data Domain’s "nearline" storage systems have been designed to optimise data protection and disaster recovery (DR) performance and reduce costs - while leveraging your existing backup protection investments.

Their solutions address backup and recovery challenges with:

Long term data retention at the cost of tape - Data Domain’s highly efficient Global Compression deduplication and compression technology, has radically changed storage costs to less than £0.20/GB. This not only significantly reduces the cost of disk-based storage and the amount of physical backup data to manage, but also allows Data Domain systems to retain months of backup data
Optimised for both backup and recovery processes - With Data Domain, there is no need to choose between backups and recoveries for performance or reliability. High throughput (up to 12.8 TB/hour of sustained throughput) allows Data Domain systems to process simultaneous backup, recovery and replication operations
Reliable, rapid recoveries - Data Domain’s high capacity (up to 20 petabytes) allows long-term online retention. This ensures recoveries will come from a Data Domain system which provides additional data integrity protection through its Data Invulnerability Architecture, which verifies the data is complete and restorable at time of backup
Simplified remote office data protection - Data Domain enables both centrally managed data protection and automated offsite DR for remote offices while consolidating tape infrastructure with 99% bandwidth reduction
Easy integration with existing infrastructure - One of Data Domain’s key design considerations has been simplicity. Few organisations can afford to rip out existing systems, backup software, or even backup policies
Standard interface support - Data Domain systems easily fit into the existing backup infrastructure using standard interfaces such as NFS, CIFS, NDMP and virtual tape library (VTL)
Compatibility with all leading enterprise backup software - Data Domain Enterprise Protection Storage systems work seamlessly with all the leading standard backup software solutions
Support for various applications and data types - Data Domain protects the complete range of enterprise and developer application data, including: Oracle and other databases, Exchange and other e-mail applications, developer files, e.g. ClearCase and CVS, enterprise applications such as CRM and ERP and VMware

A solution for every need

Data Domain offers a comprehensive range of products designed specifically to meet the “nearline” storage needs of enterprises of all sizes, these include:

Appliance series - Deduplication storage appliances for backup and recovery of enterprise data
DDX array series - Scalable, high-performance deduplication storage systems for the data centre. DDX arrays offer up to 20 petabytes of capacity, up to 12.8 TB/hour of throughput and include management and support for up to 320 remote locations
Gateway series - extends the benefits of Data Domain deduplication technologies to enterprises with third-party external storage systems
Replicator software - Network-efficient, automated, ultra-safe replication software solution for DR, remote office data protection and multi-site tape consolidation
OpenStorage (OST) software - provides seamless integration between Data Domain deduplication storage systems and Symantec Veritas NetBackup
Virtual tape library software - By emulating multiple tape libraries over a Fibre Channel interface, this option provides deduplication storage for SAN environments
ES20 expansion shelf - increase the usable storage for the Data Domain Appliance Series and DDX array series
Operating system - The Data Domain operating system has revolutionised “nearline” storage workloads - including disk backup, data archiving, networked DR and remote office data protection - with high-speed, inline deduplication and consistent, integrated system management tools

To find out more how Data Domain deduplication storage systems can help your organisation cope with its backup and recovery problems, please contact us on 01928 809000.

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