Using a dedupe tool in backup systems: W. Curtis Preston's top deduplication tips

Data deduplication tools promise to reduce the storage of redundant data, which optimizes network bandwidth and storage capacity. Data dedupe is one of the hottest technologies in backup and recovery, and its popularity shows no sign of slowing down. According to the May 2010 Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com Purchasing Intentions survey, 40% of respondents hope to increase their spending on dedupe technologies in 2010. That supports the 23% who are currently using dedupe in their backup operations and the 32% who plan to add it this year.

But choosing the right dedupe tool can be tricky. Should you go with inline or post-processing deduplication? What is global deduplication and why is it so important? To make your job easier, we've collected our top five data deduplication tips from backup and recovery expert W. Curtis Preston.

CHOOSING A DEDUPE TOOL: TABLE OF CONTENTS
First steps: Deduplication explained
Source deduplication vs. target deduplication
Data deduplication products and disaster recovery
Global deduplication FAQ
Restoring deduped data


FIRST STEPS: DEDUPLICATION EXPLAINED

Data deduplication is one of the biggest game-changers in data backup and data storage in the past several years, and it is important to have a firm understanding of its basics if you're considering using it in your backup storage environment. In this data deduplication tutorial for beginners, learn about the differences between inline vs. post-processing deduplication, global deduplication, deduplication ratios, and more. Read Preston's deduplication explained tutorial to get answers to your biggest deduplication questions.


SOURCE DEDUPLICATION VS. TARGET DEDUPLICATION

In this column, learn about the differences between source deduplication and target deduplication, one of the biggest debates in the deduplication world. You'll learn what products dedupe at the source, and which ones offer target-based deduplication. When choosing a dedupe tool, it's important to know about the differences between these types of tools. Read about source deduplication and more in this column.


DATA DEDUPLICATION PRODUCTS AND DISASTER RECOVERY

Data deduplication has gained a lot of traction in the data backup and recovery world over the past few years, but what about using dedupe tools as part of your disaster recovery (DR) strategy? When integrating data deduplication products into your disaster recovery strategy, there are a number of things you need to consider. Should you use source dedupe or target dedupe? Which one is better for disaster recovery? If you are backing up your data to tape and disk, are there other issues to keep in mind? Listen to this podcast about using data deduplication products as part of your DR strategy.


GLOBAL DEDUPLICATION FAQ

Now that data deduplication is rapidly becoming a mainstream feature in data backup and recovery, a big question for any data dedupe product is, "Does it do global deduplication?" Global data deduplication allows users to deduplicate data across multiple boxes, which can simplify management as companies back up more and more data. In this podcast with Preston, learn about the pros and cons of global dedupe, what dedupe tools offer global deduplication, and the benefits of global deduplication. Listen to this podcast to answer your FAQ on global deduplication.


RESTORING DEDUPED DATA

Restores from some data dedupe systems can be slower than modern tape drives, and restores from other deduplication systems can be faster than tape could ever dream of. In this column, you will learn what you need to do to make sure your dedupe system is on the right side of those two extremes. Learn how to analyze your deduplication system's performance, and mitigating the data dedupe tax in this column on how to recover deduped data .


EDITOR'S TIP: For more backup and recovery tips by W. Curtis Preston, bookmark our special page with links to all of W. Curtis Preston backup and recovery tips. For more on deduplication, bookmark our section on data reduction and deduplication.

This was first published in July 2010

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