I love big Data Domains, don’t get me wrong. When you take an appliance like the Data Domain 9800 that can scale to almost 1PB usable, then apply 20:1, 30:1, 50:1 deduplication on top of that, you’re talking about being able to store serious amounts of backup data for huge enterprises.
But the great thing about Data Domain is it’s the same fundamental deduplication algorithm regardless of whether you’re using it on-premises, in the public cloud, and from the smallest to the largest system.
The smaller end Data Domains have always been popular for ROBO environments, satellite offices, and smaller businesses. The latest in the line of entry-level physical appliances has been the Data Domain 3300, which merges Data Domain and PowerEdge technology to deliver a backup thumping experience. The DD3300 has been out for a little while now, and it’s just got a great new refresh.
The DD3300 had previously been available in 4, 16 and 32TB varieties, with the 4TB model expandable to 16TB, or the 16TB model expandable to 32TB. There’s always room for enhancement though, and with the refresh, you can get 4, 8, 16 and 32TB models of the DD3300. What’s more, the 8TB model is fully expandable to 32TB, giving you a great entry point for ROBO/Satellite/Small businesses while still providing an excellent upgrade path. And for an entry level system, it’s fast: 7TB/hour throughput.
So let’s think about those usable capacity sizes. If I assume a 30:1 deduplication ratio (and I’m doing that based on an average across a bunch of my customer environments at the moment):
- 4 TB usable gives you 120 TB at 30:1 deduplication
- 8 TB usable gives you 240 TB at 30:1 deduplication
- 16 TB usable gives you 480 TB at 30:1 deduplication
- 32 TB usable gives you 960 TB at 30:1 deduplication
So in a single 2RU system you’ve got something that could store upwards of 1PB of logical backup data. In fact, if you size and configure around the 55:1 future proof guarantee, you’re talking a system that can hold 1.76 PB of logical backups in 2RU, before we talk about long term retention options. (Believe me, 55:1 is more than possible. That average 30:1 I was talking about is very much the average. I’ve got customers getting 90:1 and in fact, much higher again than that.)
I’d declare it to be the perfect home backup appliance too, except my husband would kill me if I added any more hardware to our garage. Still, it’s oh so tempting for a data protection geek…
Another great feature that’s been recently introduced to the DD3300 is VTL capability. I know, I know, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t need VTL, but it’s still required in certain situations, such as when dealing with some non-midrange systems (AS and z Series systems, for instance), or when a backup process just can’t work with backup to disk. VTL, after all, is a better fallback than genuine tape in many instances – especially if you get to deduplicate, as well.
DD3300 packs a punch where it matters: excellent deduplication ratios, SSD tier for high speed instant access, and of course, Cloud Tier and Cloud DR options, giving those remote or smaller sites the option to push longer term retention data out to object storage, and potentially ditch the co-location disaster recovery datacentre, too. If you want to know more about the DD3300’s capabilities, be sure to check out the product support page.