Deduplication, which is free of charge to customers as an inherent feature in all NetApp storage systems, will also be free when it is extended to NetApp's Virtual Tape Library (VTL) offering later this year.
The deduplication option for NearStore VTL will dramatically reduce the cost of storing backups on disk by providing effective storage capacities that are greater than today's systems, according to the vendor.
NetApp vice president of solutions marketing, Patrick Rogers, said deduplication has become a core element of its storage system offerings as more customers grapple with data growth proliferation.
While the technology helps customers control growth, Rogers said it's apparent that customers are rethinking their traditional data backup approaches as VTL becomes more prevalent.
He said recent hardware and software updates introduced in March of 2008 have more than doubled the maximum usable storage capacity of NearStore VTL and increased write-compressed performance by up to 20 per cent, enabling enterprise customers to protect more data in less time.