As a storage manager, one certainty of your life is that the quantity of data you must manage and protect will never go down. A major factor that is adding to this data growth is that many of the same or similar files are being stored over and over again and then repeatedly copied into the backup and archive storage. Significant savings could be possible if the redundancy could be reduced or eliminated.

However, this is the promise of deduplication - an enabling technology that offers the potential for taming the growth of data.

This IDC white paper provides an overview of data deduplication and assesses the benefits and disadvantages of deduplication solutions. Download this white paper to discover:

• The arguments for and against this technology
• Main approaches used for implementing deduplication
• Factors to consider when assessing the cost savings
• The future outlook of deduplication