What is deduplication?
Deduplication is a method of data backup which recognises duplicate files and backs up just one instance of the file. Where the duplicate file should be, deduplication simply points to the backed-up instance of the file instead.
How does deduplication work?
Many systems contain common files. Deduplication recognises these files and instead of backing up each common file separately, deduplication backs up one instance of the file and references it if it occurs elsewhere. Instead of having 10 identical files, deduplication just stores 1 instance of the file.
What are the benefits of deduplication?
Deduplication offers unprecedented efficiencies for data backup and storage. Because duplicate files are not backed up unnecessarily, deduplication can vastly reduce your storage demands, saving space and making your backup more cost-effective. It is also a very time-effective method of backup, allowing for shorter backup windows. The amount of data sent across your network is kept to a minimum, meaning that bandwidth capacity and associated costs are reduced.
Deduplication also offers a major benefit for data restore operations – because disk space is filled more slowly, it takes longer to fill a disk with data. Increased disk retention allows greater restore time efficiencies.
Combined with incremental backups and compression algorithms, de-duplication offers a powerful solution for your backup needs. To find out more about de-duplication backup and storage, get in touch.
