The disaster plans of most small businesses that manage critical information include data backup methods like storing nightly tapes in fireproof safes and transmitting data to off-site storage facilities on a regular basis, but with collecting massive amounts of data from documents, email programs, and media files comes the potential for bloat. It's easy to waste storage space -- and money -- by saving unnecessary data during backups. What's the answer to safely reducing bloat and cutting costs? Deduplicating.
Deduplicating (or, deduping) is a method of removing redundant information from a system's data before transferring it to secondary storage. There are several reasons why businesses choose to dedupe during the backup process: it's a more efficient use of disk space, it allows for quicker off-site data transmission, and conversely, it helps business owners get systems back up and running more quickly during disaster recovery.
Deduping is frequently used by franchises and companies with branch offices or remote facilities that transmit system data nightly to the home office for storage and system-wide updating. However, virtually any business that stores its computer data could potentially benefit from deduplication.
Startups considering deduplicating should talk with several vendors before making a final selection. There are several key questions to ask:
- Will your product scale to my system?
- How easy is disaster recovery?
- Will this work with my existing virtualization products?
- Does it support other features like migrating data to tape?
- How will your product impact my system performance?
- How do you ensure that only the redundant data is stripped?
- How is data processed? Inline processing allows follow-up maintenance like indexing and preparation for the next backup to be scheduled at a time when it won't interfere with workflow or contend for system resources. Post processing occurs after backup and is used by many businesses with an ample maintenance window or smaller workloads.
Deduplication may not be a necessary part of your backup plan if your data storage needs are minimal. If your startup works with highly sensitive, mission-critical, or irreplaceable data, then deduplication adds an extra layer of protection you can't afford to be without.
Flickr image courtesy of jaxmac.
Posted at 06:59PM Nov 04, 2009
by Joann Yates in Sun
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Thanks for giving such a useful information.
it is very helpful to those who have lost the important data.
As well as Restore My Files i used,
it allows you to recover critically important documents, or other files, which have been lost by accidental deletion.
Posted by diskdata-recovery on November 10, 2009 at 06:54 PM PST #