NetApp Drives Down Costs and Improves Efficiency for Data Center Backup and Recovery With Deduplication on NetApp VTL Systems

Business Wire, Oct 28, 2008

New Offering Extends Deduplication Across Entire Portfolio as NetApp Crosses 16,000 Deployed Systems With Deduplication

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) today announced the availability of deduplication on NetApp[R] Virtual Tape Library (VTL) systems, enabling customers to lower the disk capacity required to backup any storage system, including EMC and HP, up to 95%1. NetApp delivers unparalleled cost savings for traditional backup environments by reducing tape media usage and tape drive infrastructure and, now, through highly efficient usage of VTL disk storage through deduplication. With the addition of deduplication on VTL, NetApp offers the most complete deduplication portfolio, spanning backup, archive, and primary storage applications. More than 16,000 NetApp systems have been deployed with deduplication by 3,500 customers.

VTL systems are designed to augment traditional backup environments by providing a disk-based backup tier between backup applications and physical tape libraries that generate tapes for off-site retention. With NetApp VTL deduplication, now customers can identify and eliminate redundant backup data and reduce capacity requirements by 95%. NetApp VTL deduplication is specifically designed for backup environments and, similar to existing NetApp storage efficiency capabilities, VTL deduplication is a native component of the system's software, as opposed to competing bolt-on approaches. Having deduplication embedded natively within the storage system makes it easier for customers to set up, manage, and upgrade systems and realize the benefits of reducing capacity needs. NetApp deduplication is available to new and existing customers at no additional charge.

"Deduplication has proven to be an invaluable addition to our VTL deployment with NetApp," said Svein Thon, service line manager with EDB Business Partner ASA. With headquarters in Oslo, Norway, EDB Business Partner is one of the largest IT groups in the Nordic countries, with more than 40 years experience in serving leading Nordic businesses. "We were able to turn it on quickly and realize 95% reduction in capacity needed to backup Oracle[R] Databases and file system data. Combining deduplication with the speed and scale of NetApp VTL has allowed us to improve the efficiency of our backup operations and drive down power costs in our data center."

Deduplication complements a suite of capabilities embedded in NetApp VTL that are designed to increase the efficiency of enterprise backup and recovery, including:

* Ten times faster backups fueled by enterprise-class performance and scale2

* Fifty percent reduction in tape media costs provided by direct integration with tape libraries that substantially improves tape utilization3

* Fifty percent or more reduction in tape library infrastructure by maximizing physical tape resources through efficient direct tape creation from NetApp VTL3

* Ten times faster restores enabled by seamless integration with leading backup applications, including Symantec[TM] NetBackup[TM], CommVault Simpana, BakBone NetVault, Syncsort Backup Express, and Atempo Time Navigator4

* Simplified management through a highly scalable, modular architecture built on NetApp's single platform solution

This set of capabilities yields dramatic storage and operational efficiencies to reduce the cost of backup with highly scalable VTL systems capable of storing up to 10 petabytes of backup data.

"Today, enterprises are adopting technologies that increase efficiency and cut costs from their operations," said Lauren Whitehouse, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "NetApp VTL not only delivers on that promise with its deduplication feature, but helps organizations realize savings and improve the backup process by focusing more broadly on the entire backup environment, including disk, tape, and operating costs."

According to ESG research, data deduplication tops VTL users' new features wish list, and features such as deduplication, encryption, and replication are becoming increasingly important in users' decisions to purchase VTL over other types of disk-based solutions. NetApp's VTL offering complements its replication-based backup solution designed to serve NetApp storage environments and integrate directly with leading business applications and virtual server environments. With these offerings, NetApp enables disk-based backup for more than 5,000 customers worldwide.

"Customers are reassessing their data center backup operations now more than ever," said Jay Kidd, chief marketing officer at NetApp. "Tape will continue to have its place, but deduplication and tape optimization capabilities make disk-based storage a highly effective way to reduce the ongoing IT expense of backup and recovery. NetApp VTL reduces both the disk and tape infrastructure requirements for large backup operations, offering customers the ability to get more speed and scale out of their existing infrastructure at a fraction of the cost."

For more information on NetApp backup and recovery solutions, visit http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/infrastructure/backup-recovery/. To evaluate your current environment and learn how NetApp storage-efficiency technologies can lead to higher storage utilization, access the new NetApp Storage Efficiency Calculator at http://www.secalc.com/.>