ExaGrid's Eye on Deduplication

The article published about data deduplication on Forbes.com, "A Better Way to Store Data" is a good opportunity for me to write this first blog post as VP of Marketing at ExaGrid. 

The issues with tape backup that Bill mentions in the article ("Backups fail. Restores fail. It's probably the dirtiest job left in IT, but there has been no way to solve it") and the significant value of disk backup with deduplication brings are among many things that make ExaGrid a great company in an exciting space.

I invite you to consider the analogy made in the article between old VCRs with VHS tapes and DVDs.  How many of those reading this post still use VHS tapes for viewing movies at home?  And how many of you moved to DVDs or DVRs, even before your old VCR died?  Tape libraries, like the old VHS tapes, represent "old technology that's well past its limits."  Just like DVD players have reached a price/performance level that for most people has made them a no-brainer versus VCRs, we're now at the inflection point where disk with deduplication costs about the same as tape.  Given the advantages of faster backups and restores, greater reliability, ease-of-use, scalability, and cost parity, it should be a simple decision to move to disk.  Do you agree?

I'll look forward to sharing thoughts and perspectives on the backup marketplace in the near future.  Please feel free to comment below or drop me an email bhobbib (at) exagrid (dot) com if there are topics you would like to see us discuss.

The word scalability is often applied broadly. Scalability in backup simply means that when your data grows you can add more capacity.

 What are all the questions you need to ask?

1. Does the additional capacity just plug in and virtualize itself into the existing capacity?  Most vendors have simple plug and play inclusion of additional capacity.
2. Can all the capacity be managed from a single console? The answer is typically yes within a single scalable system.  However, is the answer still yes if you max out a system and add a second system?
3. Do I need to change anything in my existing backup application or does it all work together seamlessly? How much work is there: none, 15 minutes or hours?
4. When I add capacity am I just adding more disk or am I adding more performance?  This may be the most important question because if your backups are 5TB and they grow to 10TB and all you add is disk capacity, then your backups will slow down and explode your backup window. You need to add processor, memory, bandwidth and disk with data growth to ensure that the backup window does not expand.
5. How big can the current system scale before I need a second system and how many systems can I have in a group? Knowing this ensures you have plenty of room to grow without having to trade out vendors.

 If you go to disk and have a backup window of 6 hours and you double your data you don't want the backup window to go 12 hours. By adding all four resources in tandem with data growth you ensure a fixed backup window versus an expanding backup window. Make sure the system at 10TB has twice the memory, processor, bandwidth and disk of the system at 5TB. Otherwise, you are putting 10TB through the same resources you were putting 5TB through...and as they say in high tech...there is no free lunch.

Bill Andrews is President and CEO of ExaGrid Systems a company that provides fast, low cost and scalable disk-based backup with data de-duplication solutions.