31 July 2010
Saturday
Quantum data management software gets data deduplication
By Dave Raffo | Jan 26, 2010
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PrintQuantum Corp. is adding data deduplication to its StorNext data management software, giving customers the ability to reduce capacity of archived and in some cases primary data.
StorNext 4.0, which will be available next month, will deduplicate data natively in the file system. It uses the same deduplication IP as Quantum's DXi disk-backup systems, according to StorNext product manager Chris Duffy. As with the DXi platform, StorNext's deduplication will find redundant blocks of data across files and store only the unique data. StorNext 4.0 also supports replication, so customers can move deduplicated files offsite for disaster recovery (DR).
StorNext lets customers share files across data storage systems and tiers. Quantum claims it has more than 4,000 StorNext customers, largely in the media, entertainment, high-performance computing (HPC) and CAD/CAM markets.
Unlike vendors such as NetApp Inc., Ocarina Networks Inc. and Storwize Inc. that market their dedupe or compression as a solution for primary data storage, Quantum positions StorNext for nearline or archived data. It takes an approach similar to that of Permabit Technology Corp., which also targets its deduplication at data archiving but claims some customers use it for primary storage.
Quantum's Duffy said data deduplication brings too much of a performance hit to be useful with most primary data.
"If you call it primary dedupe, it's accurate, but there's a performance drag on there," he said.
StorNext lets customers dedupe within their primary data storage tier to reduce capacity or keep files on primary and replicate a deduped copy to a separate repository. Deduping files on the primary tier providers greater reduction, but brings more of a negative performance impact, Duffy said.
Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director, validation services at Hopkinton, Mass.-based Taneja Group, said you can consider StorNext as dedupe for primary data, depending on what you consider primary data.
This article originally appeared on SearchStorage.com
