Quantum and Dell Team to Create New Backup Appliance Choices while Standardizing Software Functionality

Deduplication is rapidly becoming the new battleground in corporate backup and no technology vendor can afford not to enter this fray. Yet until recently, Dell, the world's third largest supplier of servers--and a leading supplier of data storage solutions - lacked any native disk-based backup appliance that was capable of deduplication. That changed earlier this month with its announcement that it will develop its own line of disk-based backup appliances that will use Quantum's software, of which deduplication and replication are primary features.

Dell's November 3, 2008, announcement parallels what a few other hardware vendors have done to date: build its own backup appliance with a separate vendor providing the key deduplication and replication technology. In Dell's case, its forthcoming system will be completely built according to its own hardware specifications and then leverage Quantum's deduplication and replication software.

One key area that makes this forthcoming Quantum-enabled Dell appliance truly unique is that Dell can more fully leverage its existing relationship with EMC. Like Dell, EMC's DL3D and 3D4000 disk libraries also utilize Quantum's software to perform deduplication as well as replication. This presumably will give companies the flexibility to choose from any of these three hardware providers and create a data protection solution that can deduplicate at multiple locations and replicate data between products from any of these vendors. So as Dell approaches enterprise accounts, it can offer companies a choice of different data protection solutions with a common deduplication foundation that allows broad replication compatibility.

But what makes this announcement of further interest is what it may mean for companies as they select backup appliances now and into the future. Currently when companies purchase a disk-based backup appliance, they are generally tied to that hardware vendor longer term since if they start to use that platform's deduplication or replication features, choosing another platform becomes more difficult. This puts them in a position where they need to purchase all of their hardware from a single vendor even if that vendor may not offer all of the configuration and support options that they may need for their different office locations.

The apparent decision of Quantum, EMC and Dell to cooperate by using common deduplication and replication software across platforms takes a great deal of uncertainty out of an end user's decision. Yes, companies can still purchase all of their disk-based backup solutions from one vendor if they so choose. But now they have the option to choose hardware configurations and support options from other vendors that may better match their particular needs. This especially holds true in enterprise organizations with remote and branch offices that may independently have existing relationships with Dell, EMC or Quantum and want to continue using those suppliers and resellers.

Most administrators are very loyal to a brand and may become even more so as they start to use a specific hardware platform's software features and get them installed and operational in their environments. But this cross-vendor approach to compatibility sets up the potential for a more open industry standard to deduplicate and replicate data which bodes well for the IT community as a whole.