The Info Pro

By: Steve Wexler
08 February 2010 | [ci] channelinsider | Original Article

Data dedupe is still a relatively small market, but it’s one that is growing strongly and one that is dominated (76 percent) by direct sales from the likes of EMC and NetApp (hardware) and EMC, Symantec and IBM (software).

According to the latest numbers, data deduplication is one of the hottest technology segments, and it’s only going to get hotter, according to a new study from TheInfoPro that found that the majority of large organizations believe deduplication will have the greatest impact on their storage architectures.

Providing further evidence of dedupe’s momentum, EMC, a leader in both hardware and software deduplication, just reported greater than 50 percent year-over-year growth of both its Data Domain and Avamar dedupe products. And the results of an IDC study report that demand for storage efficiency is driving deduplication adoption and there are growing opportunities for the channel.

More than 60 percent of respondents to an IDC survey are either in the process of deduplicating or have plans to deduplicate their primary, backup, or archive data in the coming year, says Laura DuBois, program director, Storage Software, IDC. The numbers are even better when it comes to buying intentions, with 76 percent intending to spend over the next 12 months.

As for the channel, DuBois thinks the biggest opportunity is changing the existing market dynamics where 76 percent of customers buy directly from the vendor. “I think there is an opportunity to change that.”