De-duplication

Why De-duplication matters

De-duplication is one of the hottest “buzzwords” today in the industry today, but what does it really mean to your business?  More importantly, should your business implement a de-duplication strategy in order to help alleviate the seemingly never-ending need to purchase more and more storage, and if so, what is the best type of de-duplication solution for you?

As you are likely aware, enterprise data is growing at a rate that is unprecedented in human history.  According to an IDC study, data storage capacity requirements are growing at roughly 60% per annum, requiring greater and greater investments by enterprises in storage hardware to simply keep up with the explosive growth.  By 2011, it is projected that there will be approximately 1,800 exabytes of data worldwide, with no slowdown in sight.

Thus, there has been a flurry of data de-duplication innovation and new solutions in the last several years with the goal of being able to store all this new digital data, but being able to do so without increasing storage hardware and footprint in a proportional manner.  Specifically, data de-duplication is a type of data compression where redundant data between files or blocks is eliminated, and storage utilization improves, often dramatically. 

The bottom line for many enterprises that implement de-duplication is that they are able to store more data on storage hardware than before, saving them money in the long-run.  But again, with so many options and things to consider in a de-duplication strategy, what is the best way to get started?

De-duplication Solutions & Mark 3 Systems

Mark 3 Systems has recognized and embraced the trend of the de-duplication solutions over the last several years and has molded its skills and solutions to help clients take advantage of this powerful technology.  As illustrated above, one of the important things to realize about de-duplication is that there are many ways to deploy it.  Some de-duplication methods and technologies are more effective for some enterprises than for others.  Thus, there is not a one-size-fits-all or “magic bullet” that will work for everyone.  Accordingly, through a consultative approach and leveraging past experience, Mark 3 Systems can work with your business to determine what form of de-duplication would work best.

Some of the technologies and solutions that Mark 3 has utilized to implement de-duplication solutions for clients include:

• IBM ProtecTIER De-duplication Virtual Tape Library (featuring HyperFactor technology)
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack
• IBM N Series Advanced Single Instance Storage

If you’d like to partner with Mark 3 Systems to build a de-duplication solution for your enterprise, or if you have additional questions about data de-duplication, please contact us!