EMC To Add Dedupe To NetWorker Software

EMC also said it will unveil enhancements to its Avamar deduplication solution as well as its EMC Disk Library.

EMC will debut the new technology to an audience of 7,000 customers and partners attending the company's annual EMC World conference, held this week in Orlando, Fla.

Deduplication, also called "dedupe," removes duplicate information as data is stored, backed up or archived. It can be done at the file level, where duplicate files are replaced with a marker pointing to one copy of the file, and/or at the sub-file or byte level, where duplicate bytes of data are removed and replaced by pointers, resulting in a significant decrease in storage capacity requirements.

EMC is adding source-based deduplication to its EMC NetWorker data protection software via increased integration with its Avamar backup and recovery solution. Avamar includes dedupe as part of its offering.

Source-based dedupe removes duplicate information before it is sent across a LAN or WAN. This results in fewer files and less data being sent over the network but can affect the performance of the backup because of the processing overhead caused by the dedupe process.

The NetWorker software gains access to the source-based deduplication thanks to integration with EMC Avamar for Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases. With that integration, NetWorker customers can manage traditional backups as well as application-specific backups while cutting the amount of storage capacity required by up to 98 percent, EMC said.

Mark Sorenson, senior vice president of EMC's Storage Software group, said the reason NetWorker gets its dedupe through Avamar and not as a modification to its own code is to prevent EMC from offering two different dedupe products.

Instead, to access the dedupe technology, NetWorker users have to purchase Avamar licenses, Sorenson said. "If customers buy both, they get an integrated approach," he said.

Most NetWorker customers needing dedupe capabilities are expected to purchase incremental licenses of Avamar, which is focused on disk-based storage, as opposed to NetWorker, which is more traditional data protection software.

However, Sorenson said, that is not to suggest that EMC is pushing Avamar over NetWorker.

"I want customers to buy EMC products," he said. "Interestingly enough, I get a lot of Avamar customers looking for tape backup solutions."

EMC also plans on Tuesday to introduce NetWorker Fast Start, a prepackaged solution that includes new capabilities for speeding and simplifying deployments in midsize environments.

Also planned for launch on Tuesday is new backup services and assessments, including EMC Assessment for Deduplication and EMC Operational Assurance for Avamar, through EMC Global Services.

EMC on Tuesday also plans to unveil new software capabilities for its EMC Disk Library 1500 and 3000 models.

The EMC Disk Library family of disk-based backup appliances will be getting new replication technology to increase replication throughput by up to 80 percent, as well as new enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities, support for NetWorker path-to-tape and replication, and deduplication support for Oracle RMAN, EMC said.