ORLANDO: From a storage vendor's perspective, i.e. EMC, the fact that digital data is growing at an explosive rate, with the "digital universe" doubling every 18 months and expected to be five times larger by 2012, is good news. But from a customer's perspective, storing and managing that data continues to be a nightmare.

One of the growing pain points from the digital data explosion is backup, said EMC's Mark Sorenson, SVP of its storage software group. Avamar and source-based deduping can provide significant savings that can range from 75:1 to 586:1, he said, and can change how data is handled. "Don't back up data, archive it!"

Resource Library:

At its customer and partner event, EMC is announcing new data deduplication capabilities for Microsoft SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and Oracle databases in the latest release of NetWorker. It now provides source-based deduplication via integration with EMC Avamar, which the company says requires 98 percent less storage and enables 90 percent faster backups. EMC made a number of other announcements, including NetWorker Fast Start, a packaged solution for midsize environments, which provides more options and new push install capabilities that speed and simplify deployments.

The newest version of Avamar includes support for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and IBM Lotus Domino. The company also announced new software for the EMC Disk Library 1500 and 3000 models that can improve replication throughput by up to 80 percent, and enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities via EMC Data Protection Advisor integration. In addition, EMC Disk Library now includes NetWorker path-to-tape and replication support, OpenStorage API support for Symantec Veritas NetBackup as well as API support for Oracle RMAN optimized deduplication, which can provide up to a 300 percent increase in deduplication ratios. EMC also announced new backup services and assessments (EMC Assessment for Deduplication, EMC Operational Assurance for Avamar) that can show customers how much duplicated data they have and the potential savings from deploying EMC solutions.

"There is no one-size-fits all when it comes to backup environments, which is why EMC offers such an extensive portfolio of solutions that can be mixed and matched to provide the right recovery time and recovery point objectives," said Sorenson.

Availability: NetWorker Fast Start, Disk Library software (Version 1.1), Avamar, Assessment for Deduplication, Operational Assurance for Avamar and NetWorker Oracle support are available immediately, and Microsoft support is available May 29.