NetApp gets in the dedupe game

Storage in the Enterprise Arsenal Digital Solutions Automated Off-Site Data Protection for SMBs Would you bet your company on the data saved during your last backup? Statistics show that only 6% of companies suffering a catastrophic data loss will survive beyond two years. And yet many organizations struggle to maintain a regular backup schedule, especially as more and more employees work from remote locations: branch offices, home offices, and while traveling. Join us for a timely, interactive presentation to find out how automated, off-site data protection can help SMBs to meet and overcome their backup, recovery and business continuity challenges. Click here to register today and learn how to protect your mission-critical data! Network World's Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter, 05/17/07 NetApp gets in the dedupe game By Deni Connor Network Appliance, a company new to the deduplication market but not new to storage, this week is unveiling software for its NearStore R200 and FAS systems that deduplicates all types of data being stored on them. This is a pretty handy capability, which has been previously applied to only the data stored on virtual tape libraries to reduce storage capacity. In NetApp’s case, its A-SIS (Advanced-Single Instance Storage) works on Network File System (NFS) and Common Internet File System (CIFS) files. It has been used in SnapVault for Symantec’s NetBackup product for the past two years. NetApp’s A-SIS deduplication is done in post-processing mode, in which data is deduplicated on disk before it is stored. It is integrated with NetApp’s Data ONTAP 7.2 operating system and the company’s WAFL file system. WAFL saves only changed blocks of data when subsequent storage operations are performed for the same client, providing the SIS in single-instance storage. ENTERPRISE NAS - TRENDS, ISSUES & OUTLOOK Watch Network World's Editorial Perspectives webcast on Enterprise NAS for the issues, trends and new developments affecting today's enterprise network storage environment. View to understand the latest thinking on Network Attached Storage (NAS) and its place in today's enterprise. Click here to watch now! A-SIS only stores unique data blocks in the volume and creates a small amount of additional metadata. Each block of data is identified by a digital signature that is compared to other signatures in the volume. If blocks match, the duplicate block is discarded. According to NetApp’s claims, there is an approximate 1% hit on write performance incurred in the deduplication process. NetApp is working to make A-SIS work with transaction-based database data. The deduplication capability is managed by a command line interface (CLI). Deduplication can be scheduled to occur on specific days and times or performed manually via the CLI. Flexible volumes targeted to be de-duped are limited in size to 4TB on a NearStore, 2TB on a FAS3050 and 1TB on a FAS3020.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Deni Connor is senior editor for Network World magazine covering storage, archiving and compliance, IT in healthcare, Novell and data center-related issues. E-mail Deni.   Arsenal Digital Solutions Automated Off-Site Data Protection for SMBs Would you bet your company on the data saved during your last backup? Statistics show that only 6% of companies suffering a catastrophic data loss will survive beyond two years. And yet many organizations struggle to maintain a regular backup schedule, especially as more and more employees work from remote locations: branch offices, home offices, and while traveling. Join us for a timely, interactive presentation to find out how automated, off-site data protection can help SMBs to meet and overcome their backup, recovery and business continuity challenges. Click here to register today and learn how to protect your mission-critical data! ARCHIVE Archive of the Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007