EMC has announced new software to increase the speed of its data deduplication process.
Based on a Symantec open storage technology protocol, DD Boost claims to be able to ramp up deduplication and backup speeds by 50 per cent on average while reducing loads on the local area networks and servers themselves.
"It is called 'boost' [because] it is turbocharging the throughput of our systems in an incredible way," said Frank Slootman, president of backup recovery systems division at EMC and ex-chief executive of Data Domain, during a press conference EMC World 2010.
The software sits on the backup server and moves the compute intensive work onto the back-end, meaning loads on the LANs can be reduced by over 80 per cent and back up speeds increased significantly.
"Speed is everything in our business," added Slottman, "There are only 24 hours in a day."
"But data grows and you can never have enough bandwidth [so] these improvements are dramatic."
However, the company is slightly behind the curve as, being an open technology from Symantec, this capability is already available on NetBackup and Backup Exec.
If you favour the EMC option, it will be included in it's latest version of Networker backup and recovery software in the second half of 2010.
Slootman also claimed that the debate whether deduplication should be at the source or the target was "over."
He concluded: "Targets versus source has been a raging debate. We are here to tell you that is no longer an architectural choice [as] you can get both today. [Instead] it is going to be a policy decision."
EMC has seen great success from its acquisition of Data Domain last year. The fight was on with NetApp to secure the company but now it has been integrated as backup recovery systems division, it is becoming one of EMC's most successful arms and is expected to make over $1 billion this year.
