Symantec extends deduplication support

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 08 July 2009 09:19

Business IT - Technology

Symantec is pushing along its deduplication strategy, integrating the technology with its NetBackup, Backup Exec and Enterprise Vault applications.

Symantec's plan is to move deduplication closer to the data source so that it is only necessary to back up one instance of each item, rather than copying everything and then performing deduplication.

Paul Lancaster, director of systems engineering at Symantec, told iTWire that this approach is better from recovery, discovery and compliance perspectives.

Integrated deduplication is now incorporated in NetBackup and Enterprise Vault, and it will be added to Backup Exec later this year, probably around August.

The forthcoming version of Backup Exec will perform deduplication at the client and server levels, and similar functionality will be added to NetBackup 7, due in 2010.

Deduplication is particularly important in virtualised environments, added Lancaster. To this end, NetBackup PureDisk 6.6, expected later this year, will provide enhanced deduplication when backing up virtual server images.

The new version of NetBackup already provides the ability to restore any file from a virtual machine image.

In addition to moving deduplication closer to information sources, Symantec is working towards centralised management of deduplication whether it is performed by its own products or those from partners such as Quantum and EMC.

"Deduplication is a primary focus for Symantec, and we will continue to deliver innovative technology that helps organizations achieve significant storage and cost savings while providing advanced recovery capabilities and centralised management to meet our customers' demanding business requirements," said Matt Kixmoeller, vice president of product management within Symantec's information management group.