Data Domain VS NetApp deduplication numbers

[sigmagnuson]

This is my first time posting.  I hope I don't violate any etiquette.

I'm wondering if anyone has any real world Data Domain (DD) VS NetApp deduplication numbers?

Looking at putting in a D2D device with NBU.  DD makes claims, NetApp makes claims but I'm wondering if anyone has a side by side comparision of deduplication numbers for an identical data set.

So basically something like:

1TB of data type XXXX on NetApp had a dedupe of 60%

That same 1TB of data on DD had a dedupe of 70%

Would also be interested in compression numbers.

This will not be the only deciding factor, just one piece of the puzzle.

Thanks in advance

Sig

[ralfaro01zero]

I don't know about the deduplication ratio of NetApp vs DD, but with NetApp you have online deduplication on your first tier as well as all the NetApp features in the same box, you don't need to buy a new product family every time you need a new feature like you do with any other storage manufacturer (aka: "Build a Frankestein").

I'd rather lose 10% of space than buying a whole new product line to "attach it" to my existing storage infrastructure everytime I need a new feature.

Cheers.

[sigmagnuson]

Hey ralfaro01zero,

Thanks for the comment and I completely agree.  But what if you were to loose 60% of space.  Would you feel the same?

That's the purpose of my question.  I'm curious to know how different the ratios may be?

Thanks

[sigmagnuson]

I have received some responses to my inquiry off-line.  Sanitized and posted here in case it helps anyone in the future

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Basically it really all depends on the types of data you are backing up. Some data like windows file systems get the greatest de-dup rates. Data change rates and the amount of net-new data also plays into the formula. When I was selling Data Domain and Avamar, from a marketing perspective we usually said 20 to 1 de-dup rate is usually standard.

... bake-off of Data Domain VS NetApp (de-dup) using CommVault as the backup tool and DD averaged around 15 to 17:1 de-dup vs. NetApp at 6 to 7:1 de-dup rates.

The data sets were varied w/ regards to types of data we backed-up. We had Windows File system data, exchange data, Sql and oracle.

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While I agree with your numbers (this is what I see in the field too), please remember that:

1) NetApp does not Compression yet in most of these environments (until 8.1) which DD does

2) NetApp should change the conversation from “DeDupe” to what a wise man called “Non-Dup” – don’t run multiple full backups in the first place, get the backup window of your dreams and get a slightly lower savings ration as the trade-off (I’m including Compression in this..)

3) The trade off is in SATA disks, not too expensive.

4) The data is always ready for access – getting more and more customers (storage guys) to hand over some restore operations to their end-users (DBA, User, SharePoint admin Etc.)

Don’t forget that here SnapDrive gives you a great simple way to restore even in SAN

5) For NAS recoveries – talk to your NDA contact about how we’re going to improve restores from the long term archive.

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