Clearpath’s Blog on IT Infrastructure, Hybrid Clouds and IT Security

Last year we were approached by an Avamar customer looking to take their backup replication in a different direction. They were concerned about the ease of backup data access following the loss and failover of a primary data center location. Through discussions with EMC personnel, spurred along by the EMC Avamar Replication Methods and Optimization Strategies white paper (https://www.emc.com/collateral/software/white-papers/h8245-avamar-replication-wp.pdf), they wanted to implement a continuous root-to-root replication strategy.

Over the years I’ve had quite a few Data Domain customers ask, “Just what is Data Domain Boost?” followed by “Do I need Boost?” - Chances are you’ve come across this article with the same two questions. With any luck, by the time you’re through reading, I’ll have answered the first question and helped you along the way to answering the second.

Backing up remote sites can be a challenge. Distance, WAN limitations, and ease of access can make ensuring remote data is properly backed up and retained a challenge. The most common issue I see is slow network speeds between a company’s main center of operations and their remote facilities. Aspects such as diverse service providers and an area’s networking infrastructure can make the transmission of data lengthy and unpredictable.

Variable-length deduplication is the process used by EMC’s Avamar and DataDomain backup devices to condense data by removing common segments of data. As the most powerful and efficient way to deduplicate data, compression rates are often much higher than more traditional forms.