EMC Corporation Data DomainGlobal Deduplication Array

EMC Corporation has announced the Data DomainGlobal Deduplication Array, claimed to be the fastest inline deduplication storage system for enterprise backup applications. The system, based on a multicontroller extension of the Data Domain architecture, offers inline global deduplication and a global namespace for all data stored in the dual controller system.

With throughput up to 12.8 TB/h, it establishes consistent benchmarks across the spectrum of common data centre backup metrics. The system provides up to 14.2 PB of logical backup capacity, allowing simplicity for data centre backup consolidation across workloads as diverse as very large databases, VMware images and unstructured data.

Unlike most multicontroller deduplication systems, the inline system is tightly coupled with backup software, enabling inline deduplication performance, dynamic distribution of load and simplicity of operation. It distributes parts of the deduplication process to the backup servers to reduce network load and increase the throughput performance of the GDA controllers. It is claimed to offer more than 3x faster backup throughput per controller than competitive deduplication configurations. This distributed deduplication processing throughput is anchored by the native speed advantages of the Intel Xeon multicore CPUs in the GDA controllers and the Data Domain stream-informed segment layout scaling architecture that minimises the number of disk accesses required in the deduplication process. The platform supports Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec through backup server-based OpenStorage plug-in software.

The system presents a single inline deduplication storage pool to the backup application across two Data Domain DD880 controllers. Large data centre backup jobs are dynamically and transparently load balanced across the controllers, simplifying capacity management, performance management and backup administration.