User manual IBM TS7650 PROTECTIER DEDUPLICATION APPLIANCE OVERVIEW

[. . . ] With increased costs for energy, and a limited amount available, the IT budget is being stretched to the limit in order to power and cool a data center containing storage arrays in every available nook and cranny. Floor space is another factor, as the IT staff tries to meet capacity requirements within the confines of an already bulging data center, staving off the impending doom, and millions of dollars in capital investment, for a new data center. The IT staff is always looking for ways to minimize space and power, while at the same time, striving to satisfy performance and capacity requirements. IBM is one of the companies that have recognized the need to not only consolidate data center storage, but to reduce the amount of array capacity required to store multiple copies of business-critical information, both unstructured and transactional. [. . . ] The requirements for short-term retention, on the other hand, are completely different. The data center needs to commit the right balance of high-density tape for archive and high-performance disk for the backup/recovery process. The most typical environment for shortterm data retention is enterprise backup. In this environment, performance, as opposed to capacity and cost-efficiency, is the gating factor. In order to avoid interference with mission-critical applications, backups must be initiated and completed within a specified window of opportunity. If the incremental or full backup is not completed when the mission-critical applications need to come back on line, the data center runs the risk of violating their own policies and losing a critical checkpoint. 1 See the issue of Clipper Notes updated October 21, 2008, entitled Disk and Tape Square Off Again ­ Tape Remains King of the Hill with LTO-4, and available at http://www. clipper. com/research/TCG2008057. pdf. 3 See The Clipper Group Navigator dated August 2, 2007, entitled A Tape Solution for Every Size Enterprise ­ IBM Adds LTO-4 to Tape Family, available at http://www. clipper. com/research/TCG2007077. pdf. Copyright © 2009 by The Clipper Group, Inc. All rights reserved. February 25, 2009 The Clipper Group Navigator TM Page 3 One major factor that is having the biggest impact on the growth of enterprise storage is the backup of identical data segments on a nightly and weekly basis. Redundant data is rapidly becoming one of IT's biggest headaches, and biggest opportunities. It increases acquisition costs, wastes energy, and clogs the storage I/O. One way the IT staff can reduce the amount of data that needs to be saved, and therefore the length of time required for the backup, and the recovery, is by eliminating the backup of identical data through data deduplication. You only back up the same data once! The Advantages of Data Deduplication In order to reduce data proliferation, many enterprises are now deploying data deduplication software to eliminate redundant copies of the same data, reducing it to a single instance. In the deduplication process, duplicate copies of the same data are deleted, leaving only one instance to be stored. However, indexing of all data is still retained in the event that data needs to be recovered. Deduplication can significantly reduce the required storage capacity since only unique data is stored. For instance, if an email system containing 100 instances of the same 1MB attachment is being backed up, all 100 instances would be saved, requiring 100 MB of disk capacity. With data deduplication installed, only one instance of the attachment is actually stored. In this case, a 100MB storage requirement would be reduced to just 1MB. Now imagine the amount of storage required if the data center is doing a full backup weekly. With data deduplication deployed, only 1MB of capacity would be consumed. The IT staff needs to examine their data structure closely to determine if data deduplication can provide them the same type of savings. If your backups do contain duplicate data, then it is easy to see the benefits that data deduplication can provide to the enterprise in terms of reduced storage requirements, improved SLAs, and reduced TCO. [. . . ] Reine earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, and an MBA from Northeastern University. Reach David Reine via e-mail at dave. reine@clipper. com or at 781-235-0085 Ext. (Please dial "123" when you hear the automated attendant. ) Regarding Trademarks and Service Marks The Clipper Group Navigator, The Clipper Group Explorer, The Clipper Group Observer, The Clipper Group Captain's Log, The Clipper Group Voyager, Clipper Notes, and "clipper. com" are trademarks of The Clipper Group, Inc. , and the clipper ship drawings, "Navigating Information Technology Horizons", and "teraproductivity" are service marks of The Clipper Group, Inc. The Clipper Group, Inc. , reserves all rights regarding its trademarks and service marks. [. . . ]