Continued data growth and economic pressures are driving the rapid adoption of data-reduction technologies. Although much of the attention around data reduction has focused on backup, many businesses are applying data reduction throughout the entire data lifecycle. Traditionally, the most common form of data reduction technology has been deduplication. Generally, deduplication is used with highly redundant data sets found in backup-to-disk, virtual tape, or physical tape library applications. Deduplication provides an acceptable solution for sequential access workloads that are less sensitive to performance.
However, deduplication cannot meet the demanding requirements of primary storage for random-access, high transaction volumes, and high throughput. IBM Real-time Compression software that is embedded in IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC), IBM Storwize V7000, and IBM FlashSystem V840 addresses all the requirements of primary storage data reduction, including performance. It does so by using a purpose-built technology called real-time compression. Real-time Compression software enhances efficiency by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Encryption helps improve data security, and finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs.
