Did You Say Hybrid De-Dupe?

Before I went on vacation, I had a string of emails from some press folks about a vendor's recent de-dupe announcement. That vendor was FalconStor. The million-dollar question (as the press saw it): Was this a "hybrid" de-dupe announcement?

The short answer is "no". What FalconStor announced was a post-process approach to de-dupe that allows users to begin post-processing de-duping earlier. This means that users do not have to wait until the entire backup job has been written to disk before starting to de-dupe it. Bottom line: It gives users more flexibility to meet specific backup SLAs than if the process has to wait until the backup job is 100% complete before starting to de-dupe. But it is not a "hybrid" de-dupe approach. It is not a mix (or blend) of in-line and post-process. It is more flexible post-processing. Quantum also offers a similar type of capability.

A true "hybrid" de-dupe capability, I contend, would toggle transparently back and forth between the two according to end-user data environments and requirements. Similar to how a hybrid car leverages both gas and electricity for optimal efficiency. The challenge, of course, is finding that right balance ... determining when/where it makes sense to do the de-duping in-line and when/where it makes sense to do the de-duping post-process from a performance, capacity and, yes, cost perspective. No quick answer.

There are currently no solutions on the market today that provide end-users with this level of flexibility. Proponents of some in-line solutions may say there is no need for such a technology, especially if they're meeting end-users' performance requirements. But what about tomorrow's requirements? Post-process de-dupe providers appear more "accepting" of the inevitability of such a approach -- and the potential benefits of combining the two in some fashion. Of course, post-process vendors are also playing catch-up to in-line (in terms of end-user adoption), which affects perceptions and actions -- and, yes, explains why these vendors are using the word "hybrid" to describe what they do. They're smartly riding the in-line wave.

Unfortunately, the press often gets caught up in this wave. This means end-users need to be smart and continue to do their homework!