26 Jan 2010

Deduplication 'should be used in tandem with archiving'

Firms across the UK have been advised that data deduplication, while a worthwhile data management technique, should not be relied upon for archiving and data backup purposes.

Chris Poelker wrote in his blog for Computerworld that deduplication can help reduce storage volumes and this can be of great use when creating backups, but failing to have complementary data archiving systems means businesses run the risk of deleting information that could be used as a backup during a crisis.

He noted: "An enterprise-class data protection solution should be able to recover from multiple failures. After all, this may be the only backup copy of your data."

Mr Poelker added, however, that data deduplication can play a key role in reducing data storage costs.

Elsewhere, Server Watch recently reported data deduplication could help businesses save, as the technology would enable a firm to reduce the amount of data being stored in its servers, thereby making it easier to recover any lost data and create backups.