Anyone who operates in a digital capacity knows that regular back-ups are just good practice. And the more efficient of us know to do this every 30 – 90 days to ensure any new data is recorded, in case of an instance where the original is lost or cannot be accessed – essentially repeatedly copying and storing the same data sets.
The amount of data that exists in the world is said to double every 24 months and one of the most common data quality issues is duplication, costing businesses time, money and resources. Regardless of how often a back-up takes place, it is equally good practice to ensure this data deduplicates upon back-up.
The market is crowded with back-up solutions, each offering varying degrees of sophistication, cost and efficiency – most offering deduplication as standard. Deduplication reviews all incoming data and only stores unique segments, all the ‘redundant’ duplicates are replaced with a simple reference to that data, called a ‘pointer’.
Here are 5 reasons you should make sure your back-up includes deduplication.
Reduced storage space
With regular back-ups the same data is stored again and again, using unnecessary storage space. Replacing duplicate or redundant data with a simple pointer significantly reduces storage requirements, as the information is only stored in its entirety once, rather than multiple times with each new back-up.
Improved bandwidth
If deduplication takes place as the back-up is carried out, it optimises storage without sending data over the network, improving bandwidth efficiency. Less bandwidth is also then required for replication of the data when called upon.
Cost savings
Using less storage space immediately leads to reduced storage costs. For internal servers, further costs can be saved by the reduction of electricity to power and cool disk or tape drives as fewer are in use. More efficient storage allocation allows business to get more milage out of their storage set up.
GDPR compliance
As part of GDPR legislation, businesses are required to make sure data is accurate and of high-quality – deduplication is vital to ensure high levels of compliance. Since redundant data is removed, the amount of sensitive information is reduced making it easier for business to remain compliant.
Easier disaster recovery
By eliminating duplicate data upon back-up, there is far less data to restore in the event of a disaster, making disaster recovery a much faster process, helping business get back to ‘business as usual’ quickly and easily, and minimising downtime.
If you’d like to talk more about back-up and deduplication, please reach out to our experts.
