Symantec declares deduplication everywhere

Issued by Emerging Media Communications for Symantec

Johannesburg, 07 Jul 2009

Symantec Corporation has announced the next phase of its deduplication strategy to help organisations reduce data, reduce management complexity and reduce infrastructure so they can stop buying storage, recover information faster and improve return on virtualisation. Symantec is moving deduplication closer to information sources by integrating the technology into its information management platforms: NetBackup, Backup Exec and Enterprise Vault, and centrally managing native deduplication as well as third-party deduplication appliances.

Symantec's strategy calls for a three-step reduction program:

* Reduce data everywhere by moving deduplication technology closer to information sources
* Reduce deduplication complexity by providing centralised management for all forms of deduplication, both Symantec and partner technologies
* Reduce infrastructure by using deduplication to improve the return on server virtualisation by providing storage consolidation, efficient virtual server protection and simplified management

According to a recent study (1), 51% of organisations expect to spend more on storage in 2009, even though more than 90% have lower budgets and fewer people than in 2008. Today's deduplication appliances have limited impact since they only address the end of the information management life cycle. By contrast, Symantec's Enterprise Vault moves messages, files and SharePoint content directly out of applications like Exchange, SharePoint and Windows file shares to a deduplicated archive - moving deduplication to the information source.

Using NetBackup or Backup Exec 2010, organisations will be able to deduplicate backups immediately, at the client, and centrally manage deduplication in the data centre and globally across remote offices. As a result, organisations can reduce backup storage by as much as 95%, while still providing rapid recovery of applications in the event of a disaster.

“Symantec recommends organisations put storage on a diet by deploying deduplication technology to curb data bloat and save costs,” said Marc Dijkstra, storage and availability specialist, Symantec. “Protecting more than 50% of the world's data, Symantec is well positioned to deliver deduplication everywhere because our solutions are deployed everywhere the information exists.”

Symantec also has a unique approach to reducing backup deduplication complexity, by providing a single interface to manage backups using any combination of integrated deduplication software and third-party deduplicated storage through its OpenStorage API. Organisations can deduplicate everywhere while centralising management to reduce time and cost of operations.

Symantec is delivering on its deduplication strategy with a multi-phased approach:

* Integrated deduplication is available today in NetBackup and Enterprise Vault, offering deduplicated archiving, deduplicated backup storage and global deduplicated remote office backup.
* NetBackup currently offers integrated, centralised management for third-party deduplicated storage from Data Domain, Quantum, Falconstor and EMC through the OpenStorage API.
* NetBackup PureDisk 6.6, scheduled to be available later this year, will improve storage efficiency by adding enhanced deduplication for backups of virtual server images.
* Backup Exec 2010, scheduled to be available later this year, will integrate deduplication (using NetBackup PureDisk technology) into both backup clients and Backup Exec media server. Backup Exec will also add the OpenStorage API to manage third-party deduplication appliances.
* NetBackup 7, scheduled to be available in 2010, will integrate deduplication into the backup client and NetBackup media server.

Supporting quotes:

* “Data deduplication is a popular form of data reduction that is generating interest among IT decision-makers,” according to the Gartner report (2) authored by Stanley Zaffos, Dave Russell. “Where applicable, data deduplication results in disk capacity reductions anywhere from one-third to 1/25 of the original physical disk requirement; it also offers secondary cost savings in power and cooling, network bandwidth usage reduction and, potentially, software licensing costs.”

Multimedia resources:

Videos
Ask the Experts - Data Deduplication
Stop Buying Storage - Complexity Master
Enterprise Email Storage - Complexity Master

Podcast
Symantec Deduplication Strategy Podcast

Additional Resources
What's New in NetBackup 6.5.4
More on Deduplication

Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organisations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at http://www.symantec.com.

Note to editors: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in US dollars and are valid only in the United States.

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Forward-looking statements

Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

1 Stop Buying Storage survey, Applied Research, March 2009
2 Gartner, “Use Data Deduplication to Improve Availability and Lower Cost,” by Stanley Zaffos, Dave Russell, May 27, 2009

Editorial contacts

Symantec declares deduplication everywhere

Symantec helps organisations “put data storage on a diet” with three-step storage reduction program.