iamuser
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Dedup, HA and backup
We've beening looking around for what amounts to be the "best" platform out there for storage management. With all the choices everything is beginning to be a blur to us. We can't really afford any of EMC's product line as an upgrade will be a forklift with them.
We were considering 3par and Exagrid both sounds nice but our issue is how hard is it to manage the software? How easy is it to maintain? The best thing about them is that an upgrade is not a forklift.
Are there any other platforms that we should look at that can dedup, provide HA and do backups.
All the applicances that we looked at all do de-dup after a full backup. Are there any platform/appliances that can do a de-dup prior to a backup or do both simuntanteouly without a performance hit?
What's the best of "breed" out there right now?
We were considering 3par and Exagrid both sounds nice but our issue is how hard is it to manage the software? How easy is it to maintain? The best thing about them is that an upgrade is not a forklift.
Are there any other platforms that we should look at that can dedup, provide HA and do backups.
All the applicances that we looked at all do de-dup after a full backup. Are there any platform/appliances that can do a de-dup prior to a backup or do both simuntanteouly without a performance hit?
What's the best of "breed" out there right now?
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bgoering
Take a look at http://www.netapp.com/us/products/platform-os/dedupe.html for more information on NetApp dedup.
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Best of Breed:
Hardware-wise, probably HDS AMS2xxx, but most of the ancillary software sucks. NetApp is doing some really cool stuff, but there are caveats around disk space efficiency. Their ability to do self-backup is unparalleled by any other storage system on the market. EMC CLARiiON has recently had a whole bunch of new features added that puts it out the front of the bunch at the moment. EMC's add-on replication technology, RecoverPoint is way out front of anything else currently on the market.
For de-duplication, Data Domain have the best target-based solution. No ifs, buts or maybes. For source-based de-dupe and overall backup, it has to be Symantec NetBackup. Avamar is also a good solution but has some irritating limitations.
Hardware-wise, probably HDS AMS2xxx, but most of the ancillary software sucks. NetApp is doing some really cool stuff, but there are caveats around disk space efficiency. Their ability to do self-backup is unparalleled by any other storage system on the market. EMC CLARiiON has recently had a whole bunch of new features added that puts it out the front of the bunch at the moment. EMC's add-on replication technology, RecoverPoint is way out front of anything else currently on the market.
For de-duplication, Data Domain have the best target-based solution. No ifs, buts or maybes. For source-based de-dupe and overall backup, it has to be Symantec NetBackup. Avamar is also a good solution but has some irritating limitations.
Key question: How much data do you have -- the sum of all your full backups if they were done at one time?
It's also not clear to me -- are you looking for an appliance that serves as a backup target and provides deduplication, or are you looking for primary storage onto which you'll bolt on some kind of backup technology and deduplication?
What is your data retention period (how long do you have to keep data) -- is it months, years, forever?
How much is your data growing each year? How much does it change at the block level each day?
Do you have a backup application now that you like and want to continue to use?
Answers to these questions will help get you the best recommendations.
It's also not clear to me -- are you looking for an appliance that serves as a backup target and provides deduplication, or are you looking for primary storage onto which you'll bolt on some kind of backup technology and deduplication?
What is your data retention period (how long do you have to keep data) -- is it months, years, forever?
How much is your data growing each year? How much does it change at the block level each day?
Do you have a backup application now that you like and want to continue to use?
Answers to these questions will help get you the best recommendations.
ASKER
thanks for the suggestions, we may go with 3par
Thanks! Glad I could help.