HP to Join 'Data Dedupe' Crowd

Hewlett-Packard on June 23 will announce that it is joining a growing group of data storage providers by adding its own brand of deduplication software to two new storage arrays.

The company will introduce the new disk-based backup systems with data deduplication technology that increases disk utilization by up to 50 times to deliver scalable storage, HP Storage Marketing Director Patrick Eitenbichler told eWEEK.

Data deduplication technology eliminates redundant data from a disk storage device to lower storage space requirements. EMC Avamar, Data Domain, Quantum, NetApp, Sepaton, 3PAR and a number of other companies have been using this technique—most of them for years.

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"When we looked at how we were going to provide data deduplication to our customers, we quickly determined that one size did not fit all," Eitenbichler told me. "At the high end, we had customers using other data deduplication products that had problems with scalability. When they installed it, they found that it didn't cover everything, so they had to buy another one and put it next to the first one.

"So, HP provides two distinct [homegrown] methods of data deduplication to address the affordability demands of customers of different sizes," Eitenbichler said. "For SMB [small and midsize business] customers, HP has integrated this functionality into the HP StorageWorks D2D Backup Systems. For enterprise customers, HP offers deduplication with the HP StorageWorks Virtual Library Systems.

"Data deduplication also enables customers to minimize administrative overhead, reduce floor space and lower energy consumption by decreasing storage capacity requirements."

HP's spin on this is that it is calling its brand of deduplication in the HP D2D 2500 and 4000 systems "dynamic deduplication." It's block-level dedupe at the gateway—or when the data actually enters the system.

"Accelerated" deduplication in the HP VLS offers fast data backups.

"Disk-based backup systems can enhance data protection for a business of any size. Integrating deduplication technologies allows customers to leverage up to 50 times more capacity to ensure their business has faster and reliable access to stored data," said Dave Russell, a Gartner vice president. "Deduplication technology is poised to transform the backup and recovery marketplace."
 
Deduplication license pricing for the VLS product line is as follows: for VLS12000, $5,000 per license—one per 2TB LUN (logical unit number); for VLS9000, $25,000 per license—four licenses per capacity module; for VLS6000, $8,750 per license—one or two licenses per shelf, depending on configuration (one license for 500GB drive shelves; two licenses for 750GB drive shelves).

Deduplication for the D2D 4000 and 2500 is included as standard.

Similarly, last October, HP joined the ranks of the storage key management and encryption providers by introducing a new data center security appliance—months or years behind several other companies in the sector, including RSA Security and Symantec.

It's normal for an established company such as HP, Microsoft or IBM to be slightly behind the technological curve. Established product-and-service-producing corporations of all sectors tend to wait and see how various new ideas play out in limited production use before deciding to invest in them themselves.