Data Domain Takes Wraps Off High-Compression Backup Appliances

The new appliances, which back up only data changes, optimizes storage capacity and bandwidth usage by compressing data streams for backups to up to 20 times, said Bart Bartlet, director of marketing for Data Domain, Palo Alto, Calif.

This capacity optimization is done by breaking a data object into small blocks and storing just those blocks that are unique. Since many files are duplicates, or have duplicate materials, just storing one copy of the data blocks and linking to those blocks from other files cuts down on storage capacity requirements, Bartlet said.

With Data Domain's appliances, those data blocks are moved across IP networks at up to 75 Mbytes per second, or similar to the performance of an LTO or other tape drive, Bartlet said.

The appliances plug into the network behind storage management software from such vendors as Veritas, Legato and CommVault, and so there are no integration issues with customers' current backup software, he said. "We don't force customers to take out their existing backup software," he said.

The company offers three models. The DD410 offers data throughput of up to 160 Gbytes per hour with a maximum useable backup capacity of up to 15 Tbytes, with a price of $19,000. The DD430 handles up to 42 Tbytes at 220 Gbytes per hours, with a price of $45,000. And the DD460, priced at $75,000, can handle up to 85 Tbytes at up to 290 Gbytes per hour.

This fall, the company also plans to introduce the DD400g, a SAN gateway which stores data on existing SAN arrays at up to 290 Gbytes per hour.

Data Domain currently has 45 solution providers in North America, and is in the process of recruiting more partners with backup and recovery experience, especially in the enterprise, Bartlet said. Last quarter, about 71 percent of revenue came from the channel.