Ask the Experts

Data reduction and deduplication

What are 3 best practices for compressed backups?

Learn important details about the use of hardware and software data compression, as well as redundancy, that could help your organization improve its backup process. Continue Reading
Can you list some data compression technology pain points?

While data compression can effectively reduce space, be careful with how you use it, because the three issues outlined here could cause problems in your storage environment. Continue Reading
How does deduplication in cloud computing work and is it beneficial?

The deduplication process reduces the amount of data in a storage system, but dedupe in the cloud may be more valuable to the cloud provider than the customer. Continue Reading
What are the downsides of copy data storage management?

Copy data management can help an organization lower its costs by cutting back on extraneous copies of data, but the technology can cause performance bottlenecks. Continue Reading
What are some new data deduplication techniques?

Copy data management is just one technology utilizing recent innovations in the backup deduplication space, combatting sprawl and managing snapshots. Continue Reading

What role does data redundancy play in copy data management?

Copy data management and backup can work together, but organizations need to be careful with redundant data. Having only one copy of data could be a problem. Continue Reading
Should the data dedupe process ever be disabled by admins?

While it may seem that you should never switch off the deduplication process, there are two instances where that may be the best solution for your organization. Continue Reading
Can your deduplication process be improved with semantic dedupe?

While semantic deduplication is a legacy technology, the global deduplication process can perform a similar job. Expert Brien Posey compares the two offerings. Continue Reading
Is deduplication ratio an important backup consideration?

The deduplication ratio was once a point of vendor competition, but now this figure doesn’t carry the weight it used to. Learn why in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
What is Data Domain Boost and what is it used for?

SearchDataBackup Senior Site Editor Andrew Burton explains what EMC's Data Domain Boost software is designed for, how it works, and which products it supports in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
Dedupe tools available today

Brien Posey discusses who is using deduplicating disk arrays today and the latest dedupe tools in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading

Using deduplication when backing up virtual machines

Independent backup expert Brien Posey discusses using deduplication when backing up virtual machines in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading
The value of negotiating SLAs before establishing backup policies

Colm Keegan of Storage Switzerland discusses how negotiating SLAs before setting backup policies can help get business buy-in for data protection. Continue Reading
Data deduplication vendors work to accelerate process

Backup expert Brien Posey explains how data deduplication vendors are working to speed up the process. Continue Reading
Post-process vs. inline deduplication and more

Rachel Dines, a Forrester Research analyst, outlines post-process and inline deduplication, as well as fixed and variable-block length dedupe. Continue Reading