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  5. Dedupe Dos and Don'ts: Page 2 of 2
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Dedupe Dos and Don'ts: Page 2 of 2

Data deduplication, at least for backup data, has made it to the mainstream. However, it's important to remember that the term "data deduplication" applies to a relatively wide range of technologies that all manage to store data once, even when they're told to store it many times. Since all of these technologies are sensitive to the data being stored, nowhere in IT is the term "your mileage may vary" more true than in dedupe. As 2010 winds down, I figured I'd share a few tips on how to get the m
Howard Marks
January 03, 2011

Do encrypt your data when you copy it from the deduping appliance to tape to send it off-site or as you replicate it over the Internet.

Don't use multiplexing to your virtual tape library. I consider multiplexing an evil technology whose day has passed. Combining the backups from multiple slow servers to a single fast tape drive made some sense when we were backing up to tape and had to keep the tape drive feed to avoid the dreaded shoe-shining. Since disk systems, with or without dedupe, can accept data slower than their maximum throughput without complaining or slowing things down even further, there's no good reason to multiplex--ever.

Follow these simple tips and your data will dedupe smaller, letting you keep data on disk longer and management happy not to be buying more disk drives for the dedupe system every few months.

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