BANGALORE, INDIA: With enterprises storing huge volumes of data than ever before, data protection has become one of the biggest challenges. According to an industry expert, data volumes are doubling every 18 months and devices accessing data are doubling every 2-1/2 years.

To address the most pressing storage needs of enterprises, vendors are trying to push 'data deduplication' beyond backup technology. Toying the line, Hewlett-Packard has announced new disk-based backup systems with data deduplication technology that increases disk utilization by up to 50 times to deliver scalable solutions that reduce storage costs and protect business critical data. 

Elaborating on HP's efforts in transforming data protection, Jim Wagstaff, Vice-President of the StorageWorks Division in HP Asia Pacific and Japan says, "With data deduplication being the buzz word, HP is focused on making data back-up and storage more healthier."

What is data deduplication?
Data deduplication technology eliminates redundant data from disk storage device to lower storage space requirements. The technology enables customers to reduce floor space and lower energy consumption by decreasing storage capacity requirements. It also helps them minimize administrative overhead by retaining data on disk for longer periods of time.

Wagstaff says: "HP is raising the bar for data protection in demanding data center environments, delivering market-leading scalability. HP provides two distinct methods of data deduplication to address the demands of customers of different sizes. For small and midsize customers (SMBs), HP has integrated this functionality into the HP StorageWorks D2D Backup Systems and for enterprise customers, it offers deduplication with the HP StorageWorks Virtual Library Systems (VLS)."
 
HP data deduplication technology for the VLS and D2D enables customers to automate and remotely manage the systems with low-bandwidth replication. This provides data center managers the ability to back up data remotely without manual intervention, thereby reducing staffing costs. Utilizing disk-based backup for remote locations reduces overhead by consolidating tape hardware into a single site.

Accelerated deduplication in the HP VLS offers fast data backups. Enterprise customers can improve business productivity with market-leading scalability and performance by easily adding disks and nodes as needed. These capabilities, coupled with reliable data recovery features, allow customers to create a data center environment that delivers 24/7 availability. 
 
"HP is radically changing the economics of data protection in smaller IT environments, offering disk-based backup with Dynamic deduplication in the HP D2D 2500 and 4000 systems," he explains. "Easy to deploy and simple to manage, these solutions provide SMBs and businesses with branch sites the assurance that their data is protected and can be quickly recovered."

To provide data protection for micro and small businesses, HP also introduced the new HP StorageWorks RDX Removable Disk Backup Systems (RDX160 and RDX320). These disk backup solutions are easy to use and affordable, and they allow small businesses to store data off-site as part of their disaster recovery plan.

 

The HP StorageWorks Removable Disk Backup acts as a no worries solution for small businesses. This low cost solution offers easy way to protect business data. "It is a brand new, simple, straight forward and a reliable product for small businesses. It is one of the most simple and secure ways to store backups off site for complete data protection. It is very robust and can be used over and over again," points out Wagstaff.

"World-over, more and more information is stored on HP storage products. We are the leader in the number of terabytes shipped," he says.

"HP continues to deliver innovative storage solutions that meet the needs of every customer segment all the way from micro-businesses to large enterprise data centers. With the storage market in India poised for growth, we are pleased to offer differentiated solutions that cater to customers optimizing on floor space and energy usage. The newly launched products today rounds up our portfolio for data protection which is critical to every business in the Indian market," adds Manoj Suvarna, Country head for Storage, HP StorageWorks Davison, HP India.

How are Indian enterprises adapting to data deduplication technologies?
 Like any new technology, there's lot of discussion on this technology as well. Large enterprises, generally, test the development cycle, says Jim. "Data deduplication is among the top six to seven technologies that come up for discussion on any forum across the world," he adds.

"Indian businesses are growing faster and are technology hungry. Deduplication offers them a great deal of scalability and flexibility. They are more aware of new trends and we are more open to adopting these solutions," he adds. 

Store more for less
The HP D2D Backup Systems emulate up to 16 LTO tape autoloaders or libraries and consolidate backup of up to 16 servers onto a single network-connected device.

Benefits of deduplication

* Increases the effective capacity for storing backup data
* Enables longer retention
* Enables faster recoveries
* Results in improved service levels, and higher IT staff productivity without additional IT resources
* Enables better disaster protection
* Provides low bandwidth replication of data
* Eliminates the need to physically manage and transport tapes between sites
* Reduces operational costs