Backup and Recovery Tip: Deploy Data Deduplication

May 8, 2015

Deduplication technology is essential to every company’s data backup process, especially when it comes to managing big data.  It is designed to eliminate redundant data in a storage system, and reduce the amount of data that must be stored as a backup. When it comes to data security, deduplication is the fastest way to generate a return on investment because it enables an organization to decrease the amount of storage to buy and maintain.

Data deduplication also enables an organization to:

• increase network bandwidth with the reduction of copies needing to be transmitted over the network
• perform faster recoveries, and avoid as much interruption to operations and productivity as possible
• preserve the ability to comply with legal and corporate storage requirements without needing to purchase additional storage

Can source dedupe or target dedupe from your backup application meet your needs? That will depend on your organization’s backup environment. Check out the descriptions of each type of deduplication below to decide which function is best suited for your organization.

Source Deduplication

As the name suggests, source deduplication occurs at the source or at the server or application layer. This type of deduplication is best suited to use at remote offices for backup to a central data centre or the cloud. It is also an ideal backup solution for environments with a low daily data change rate. Source deduplication is considered the slower of the two functions because it creates additional workload for the client device.

Benefits of source deduplication include:

• Source deduplication reduces the amount of data transferred over a network to a target storage location by 10 to 20 times
• It eliminates a potential transmission bottleneck, particularly in scenarios where existing networks are already running at near capacity or where you are carrying out remote office backups over limited-bandwidth communications lines
• Source deduplication can be effective for all types of stored data whether they are application-aware or not

Target Deduplication

Target deduplication takes place after the source has been backed up, at the target storage location. Since target deduplication provides faster performance for large data sets, it is typically used by large companies and fewer bandwidth constraints.  Unlike source deduplication, target deduplication does is usually carried out with a hardware appliance.

Benefits of target deduplication include:

• Target deduplication is a great way to enhance existing tape based backup infrastructures due to its simple integration with existing backup applications.
• The initial backup at the source can be completed more quickly by moving CPU-intensive deduplication off the source machine, shortening the backup window.
• It provides an easy starting point for organizations interested in reducing backup windows, enhance data protection, and increase productivity in the data center without making significant alterations to their backup environment.

If your company is not already utilizing data de-duplication in your backup and recovery process, now is the time to consult a vendor that offers it as feature within their appliance.

The new NetBackup Intelligent Deduplication architecture in NetBackup 7.6 delivers faster, more resource-efficient, and more reliable deduplication performance. Included in the update is a self-healing architecture that further extends and maintains data integrity. If you are interested in learning more about Symantec NBU 7.6, and its other great capabilities, click the button below to request a consultation with Dewpoint.