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Data Deduplication Explained: Definition, Benefits, and Working

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This page explains data deduplication, covering its definition, how it works, and its benefits.

Deduping or Deduplication Definition

Data deduping, or data deduplication, is the process of replacing multiple copies of data with a single instance storage. This saves storage space and bandwidth. Essentially, it’s a capacity optimization technique to improve storage efficiency.

Data Deduplication Benefits

Here’s a breakdown of the benefits and advantages of data deduplication for organizations:

  • Improved ROI/TCO: It helps meet Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) requirements.
  • Data Growth Management: It assists in managing the ever-increasing volume of data.
  • Enhanced Storage & Backup Efficiency: It boosts the efficiency of both storage and backup processes.
  • Reduced Storage Costs: It lowers overall storage expenses.
  • Reduced Bandwidth Consumption: It decreases the amount of network bandwidth used.
  • Lower Administrative Costs: It helps reduce costs associated with data administration.

Deduplication Working

Data Deduplication

  • Data deduplication replaces redundant data copies with a single, shared copy. This significantly saves storage space and bandwidth.
  • Deduplicated data is often compressed to further minimize storage requirements.

The image above illustrates the data deduplication process. The following steps are involved:

  • Evaluate Data Redundancy: Examine the data and identify redundancies within database tables.
  • Create & Update References: Establish and maintain reference information linking to the unique data.
  • Store/Transmit Unique Data: Store or transmit unique data only once.
  • Read/Reproduce Data: Read or reproduce data based on the references.
  • Data Deletion/Space Reclamation: Remove redundant data and reclaim the freed-up storage space.

Data deduplication comes in various forms, including:

  • Source deduplication
  • Target deduplication
  • Inline deduplication
  • Post-process deduplication
  • Fixed-length segment deduplication
  • Variable-length segment deduplication