AppAssure

De-Duplication

Data de-duplication essentially refers to the elimination of redundant data. In the de-duplication process, duplicate data is deleted, leaving only one copy of the data to be stored. However, indexing of all data is still retained should that data ever be required. De-duplication is able to reduce the required storage capacity since only the unique data is stored. For example, a typical email system might contain 100 instances of the same one megabyte (MB) file attachment. If the email platform is backed up or archived, all 100 instances are saved, requiring 100 MB storage space. With data de-duplication, only one instance of the attachment is actually stored; each subsequent instance is just referenced back to the one saved copy. In this example, a 100 MB storage demand could be reduced to only 1 MB.

In general, data de-duplication improves data protection, increases the speed of service, and reduces costs. The business benefits from data de-duplication start with increasing overall data integrity and end with reducing overall data protection costs. Data de-duplication lets users reduce the amount of disk they need for backup by 90 percent or more. With reduced procurement costs, as well as reduced power, space, and cooling requirements, a disk becomes suitable for first stage backup and restore and for retention that can easily extend to months. With data on disk, restore service levels are higher, media handling errors are reduced, and more recovery points are available.