Symantec Corp. today announced the next phase of its deduplication strategy to help organizations reduce data, reduce management complexity and reduce infrastructure so they can stop buying storage, recover information faster and improve return on virtualization. Symantec is moving deduplication closer to information sources by integrating the technology into its information management platforms: NetBackup, Backup Exec and Enterprise Vault, and centrally managing native deduplication as well as third-party deduplication appliances.

Symantec’s strategy calls for a three-step reduction program:

* Reduce data everywhere by moving deduplication technology closer to information sources
* Reduce deduplication complexity by providing centralized management for all forms of deduplication, both Symantec and partner technologies
* Reduce infrastructure by using deduplication to improve the return on server virtualization by providing storage consolidation, efficient virtual server protection and simplified management

According to a recent study1, 51 percent of organizations expect to spend more on storage in 2009 even though more than 90 percent have lower budgets and fewer people than in 2008. Today’s deduplication appliances have limited impact since they only address the end of the information management lifecycle. By contrast, Symantec’s Enterprise Vault moves messages, files and SharePoint content directly out of applications like Exchange, SharePoint and Windows file shares to a deduplicated archive – moving deduplication to the information source. Using NetBackup or Backup Exec 2010, organizations will be able to deduplicate backups immediately, at the client, and centrally manage deduplication in the data center and globally across remote offices. As a result, organizations can reduce backup storage by as much as 95 percent while still providing rapid recovery of applications in the event of a disaster.

Symantec is delivering on its deduplication strategy with a multi-phased approach:

* Integrated deduplication is available today in NetBackup and Enterprise Vault, offering deduplicated archiving, deduplicated backup storage and global deduplicated remote office backup.
* NetBackup currently offers integrated, centralized management for third-party deduplicated storage from Data Domain, Quantum, Falconstor and EMC through the OpenStorage API.
* NetBackup PureDisk 6.6, scheduled to be available later this year, will improve storage efficiency by adding enhanced deduplication for backups of virtual server images.
* Backup Exec 2010, scheduled to be available later this year, will integrate deduplication (using NetBackup PureDisk technology) into both backup clients and Backup Exec media server. Backup Exec will also add the OpenStorage API to manage third-party deduplication appliances.
* NetBackup 7, scheduled to be available in 2010, will integrate deduplication into the backup client and NetBackup media server.