Ajay Goel,
Managing Director,
India and SAARC,
Symantec
Information explosion is a reality that all organizations have to deal with on a daily basis. According to an IDC study, a 60% growth in data is expected in India over the next 10 years.
This means that enterprise IT is under tremendous pressure. Rising storage needs cannot translate into adding newer storage as that is cost intensive.
“One of the most effective technologies for addressing the challenges of both rapid data growth and reduced budgets is deduplication,” says Ajay Goel, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Symantec. Indeed, just as next-generation tools such as disk-based backup are revolutionizing data protection, deduplication is enabling a new era of information management. Now with the ability to deduplicate data everywhere and manage it centrally, organizations can not only improve data protection operations and lower costs, but move towards a more systematic approach for managing information growth.
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Deduplication is storage optimization technology that tackles this information overload tsunami by eliminating multiple copies of redundant data and storing only unique data. The redundant data is replaced by giving a location to the original data, often called “pointers”. Deduplication of redundant data can occur at the file, sub-file, or block level. At the sub-file and block levels, data commonly is divided into smaller segments which can be more easily analyzed for possible redundancies, as compared to using file level data, and more efficiently stored. “Deduplication plays a vital role with Information Life Cycle management practised by CSMB customers and it helps in optimization of existing storage,” says Avik Rudra, APJ Enterprise Product Management, SMB, Dell India.
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Jim Simon, Director of Marketing, Asia-Pacific, Quantum, says, “Data deduplication has gone from a new, promising technology to one that is proven and well-accepted. IT organizations know that it delivers on its promise and are now more focussed on the overall results like backup and restore performance (i.e. TB/hour), replication, and of course the cost of the total solution.”
Deduplication is storage optimization technology that tackles this information overload tsunami by eliminating multiple copies of redundant data and storing only unique data. The redundant data is replaced by giving a location to the original data, often called “pointers”. Deduplication of redundant data can occur at the file, sub-file, or block level. At the sub-file and block levels, data commonly is divided into smaller segments which can be more easily analyzed for possible redundancies, as compared to using file level data, and more efficiently stored. Deduplication plays a vital role with Information Life Cycle management practised by CSMB customers and it helps in the optimization of existing storage.
“Data deduplication is now a proven and mature technology, Data deduplication solutions have matured through several architectural changes that now make it a sound solution for both enterprises and SMEs,” says Roshan Kumar, Practice Manager, Backup & Recovery Systems, EMC India & SAARC.
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Kumar Mitra, Sales Director, Data Protection, Quest Software, says, “We have seen an increase in the adoption of deduplication solutions among its clients who are looking to reduce the size of their organizational data that needs to be backed up for storage. Currently, there is significant level of awareness among the decision-makers regarding the need for intelligent data deduplication solutions. It is only a matter of time before the adoption rate catches up with the awareness level. Our clients are increasingly seeing adoption of data deduplication solutions as a strategic investment than just an industry best practice.”
Data Deduplication Solutions for SMEs
Today, every business, big or small, is dependent on their data for the overall administration of their business, and data deduplication has played a crucial role in this. “However, it wasn't until very late when small and medium businesses realized the risk they had created for their business by not protecting their critical information with apt data storage/protection systems,” says Avik Rudra of Dell.
According to the India findings from the 2010 SMB Information Protection Survey, while 15% have already installed data deduplication solution, 36% SMBs have started the process of implementation, yet lack of skilled resources is the only reason for SMBs not backing their data regularly.
Quantum Corp., a provider of backup, recovery, and archive solutions, claims to squeeze up to 20-to-1 space savings with compression and dedupe with the DXi4500, which comes in 2.2TB and 4.4TB versions. The San Jose, Calif.-based company uses a variable-block approach that beats fixed-block compression rates of 2-to-1. Jim says, “Now that data deduplication is well-accepted it has begun to be implemented in SMB solutions like Quantum's DXi4500 backup appliance.”
Ajay Goel of Symantec says, “Deduplication technology so far has been restricted to large enterprise, but it is a viable option for small- and mid-sized businesses also, as they can reap the benefits of storage reduction. Deduplication provides organizations with greater flexibility by providing an interface between sophisticated backup and recovery software and advanced disk-based storage appliances. SMBs can leverage an integrated platform that not only supports both software and hardware-based deduplication, but is also easy to manage.”
The hindrances that SMBs usually have while adopting Deduplication, is the gap that is existing between solutions that are originally designed for large enterprises and the basic-level manual storage offerings targeted at small businesses with very little viability. Up till now, there have not been many vendors who focus on this segment of the market, and often they end up providing solutions that are very costly for these businesses. And at the other end, the ones (solutions) that are directly targeted at SMBs lack the high-end tools, integration, scalability, etc., required by an SMB. “Realizing this pain point of SMBs, Dell has come up with adequate data management solutions - IDM, to address the needs of this important segment of their market,” says Avik Rudra.
Opportunity for Channel Partners
There is a tremendous scope for reseller community in the deployment of Data Deduplication solutions. “Dell has always recognized the role of its Partner community in the deployment of its products. Data deduplication is also an important area where the reseller community makes its mark. They are important in educating customers on their needs and suggesting a solution that is right for them,” says Avik Rudra.
“Quantum is a channel-centric company so we assist our channel partners as much or as little as they need to be successful,” says Jim of Quantum. The opportunity for Quantum channel partners to sell data deduplication solutions has never been better. He cites the following reasons for this:
* Data deduplication is now proven and well-understood by IT organizations
* Quantum has solutions that are optimized for small, medium, and enterprise organizations
* Deal registration and sales incentives ensure that Quantum channel partners grow their top and bottom lines
Dell's vision of selling more open, capable and affordable solutions to their customers cannot be fulfilled in the absence of partners. “We, therefore, take every possible step to educate our partners on our products so they can further suggest the right product to the end- customers,” says Avik Rudra.
The recent restructure of global commercial channel, done at the suggestion from our partners, is proof of our reliance and commitment to them. Avik Rudra says, “We also very recently organized an all-India Storage Summit for our channel partners so we could enhance their enterprise knowledge, with respect to Dell's products and solutions.” He adds, “Our partners can provide tremendous value throughout the cycle, right from sizing the solution to the deployment. The partners can help educate the customer about the right solution based on the actual needs of the customer.
Symantec is a partner-centric company and our partners drive our business across all market segments. “We recognize the importance of becoming Specialists in a particular technology and hence, our partner programme - the Enhanced Symantec Partner Programme focusses on our partners becoming Specialists in the various technology solutions across storage, security and systems management. Today's customer is influenced by the various strategic IT trends like virtualization, cloud, information explosion, etc. that is creating many doubts in their mind,” says Ajay. He adds, “We see a huge revenue growth opportunity for our partners who can transform these trends into business. Under our Specializations, we have Data Protection and Archiving and eDiscovery, both aimed at helping our partners become experts in these relevant areas.”
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Roshan of EMC says, “Channel is an important part of providing our solutions to our clients. Our partners understand the range of technologies in the market, the best option suited to meet their specific needs.”
“The reseller community plays a critical role in the ecosystem. Their understanding of the client business, their pain points and compliance regulations help them to lend strategic counsel to the customers. Even after recommending the right solution, the reseller is the key for successful implementation and maintenance. Given the unmatchable outreach of the resellers, they add great value to the solution vendors,” says Kumar Mitra of Quest Software.
Deepak Singh
edit@varindia.com
