"Deduplication is just a feature" is a common claim that you hear suppliers make when they either don't have or don't have a good deduplication capability. NetApp obviously does not agree ... you don't pay $1.5 billion dollars for something that is going to be "just a feature". NetApp will do something with Data Domain, and I am not sure why but my gut tells me they are going to get the most out of this and it will be the exception to the normally high failure rate of technology acquisitions.
How the industry responds will be based on how well they feel NetApp is going to do with the integration of the Data Domain technology.
To that end, EMC I think will feel like it has to do something. Despite that, initially I expect them to say they are going to do nothing -- business as usual. EMC is heavily impacted. I can see no other option for them other than to respond with an equivalent acquisition. That may very well be Quantum, but as I have outlined in other entries that may not be the best choice. As NetApp just proved, everyone is fair game.
HDS is the other interesting party here. In contrast to NetApp's clear beliefs that deduplication is not a feature, HDS in past conversations has indicated to me that they believe deduplication is a feature. We'll see who is right. I expect HDS to continue to partner, but an acquisition of CommVault would be interesting.
The other large players have already made a choice to a large extent. HP has a relationship with Sepaton and on the low end has done their own work. IBM has Dilligent -- I don't really see them doing anything else. Sun/Oracle is too busy trying to figure out Sun/Oracle, so I don't think we will see anything there.
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