Overview

Mid-market organizations’ (companies with 100-999 employees) data protection strategies are in transition, mostly employing backup directly to tape or backup to a mix of disk and tape.  ESG research found that only 6% of mid-market organizations back up to disk exclusively, 46% back up to tape exclusively, and 48% back up to disk and tape. The type of disk employed in backup operations varies, with networked-attached storage (NAS) more predominant, followed by direct-attached storage (DAS), storage area network devices (SAN), internal server storage, and, in less than 20% of cases, virtual tape libraries (VTLs).  Of those survey respondents with a tape-only strategy, 45% plan to deploy disk as a backup target in the next 12-24 months.[1]

Data deduplication is only beginning to take hold in backup processes.  For organizations employing tape-based backup strategies, use of deduplication could enable disk-based protection while driving the cost of secondary disk closer to that of tape storage.  ESG research respondents currently using tape in backup processes cited a higher level of planned usage of deduplication than those already leveraging disk-based backup (see Figure 1).[2] Those without interest in deduplication technology most often cite concerns about cost or lack of budget and the need to wait until tape infrastructure comes off lease as reasons for not deploying deduplication.

When it comes to backup and recovery, mid-market organizations are challenged to improve backup performance and reliability, manage costs, keep pace with capacity requirements, improve recovery performance and reliability, and deal with tape media management. [3] These requirements are driving deployment of disk with deduplication in backup processes.

Quantum is addressing these requirements with its DXi6500 family of disk storage systems featuring NAS or Symantec Open Storage (OST) interfaces, deduplication, replication, backup software for VMware environments, and the ability to back up directly to tape media.  The company will offer five appliances with usable capacity ranging from 8 to 56 terabytes—solutions that are directly aimed at competing with EMC Data Domain’s DD600 series appliances.

Analysis

The introduction of Quantum’s DXi6500 family enables it to fill a gap in its portfolio—complementing its enterprise-class DXi7500, remote office-targeted DXi2500-D, and small business-sized DXi3500 offerings.  While there appears to be an overlap in capacity between the DXi6500 (scales from 8 TB to 56 TB of usable capacity) and DXi7500 (scales from 11 TB to 220 TB of usable capacity) solutions, the DXi7500 offers both a NAS and a VTL interface, whereas the DXi6500 is NAS only.  Moreover, the DXi6500 includes all licenses for software options, while the DXi7500 offers software enhancements such as replication, deduplication, Oracle RMAN support, Symantec OST support, and direct tape integration as separate licenses.

The DXi6500 family comes in five pre-configured models.  All models come with dual quad-core Intel Nehalem processors and 1Gb Ethernet connectivity.

• DXi6510 has two 1Gb Ethernet ports and 8 TB of usable disk capacity.
• DXi6520 includes six 1Gb Ethernet ports and scales from 8 TB to 32 TB of usable capacity.
• DXi6530 scales from 24 TB to 56 TB of usable storage capacity and has six 1Gb Ethernet ports.
• DXi6540 offers the same bandwidth and scale as the DXi6530, but has two 8Gb/second Fibre Channel connectivity to physical tape.
• DXi6550 has two 1Gb and two 10Gb Ethernet ports, scales from 24 TB to 56 TB of usable capacity, and has two 8Gb/second Fibre Channel ports for the direct path-to-tape feature.

Addressing deduplication considerations most important to mid-market organizations (see Figure 2),[4] the DXi6500 family offers cost, performance, existing backup integration, implementation, deduplication configuration, and scalability advantages.

• Cost. Quantum is addressing the number-one concern of mid-market organizations with its lower starting price ($64K), which includes a bundle of all features in the price of the appliance.  Quantum’s starting DXi6500 family appliances’ cost per GB is about 10-30% less than the comparable EMC Data Domain DD600 offering.
• Performance. The new DXi6500 product family uses Intel’s Nehalem processing power, incorporates solid-state disk (SSD) drives, and 10GbE connectivity to serve up NAS backup performance of up to 2 TB per hour.  SSD’s role is to hold frequently accessed components, such as the index and cluster header, to improve performance.
• Integration with existing backup. Quantum’s DXi6500 family is compatible with a number of backup software applications and has added integration with Symantec OST.  Symantec OST optimizes the transfer and storage of information between Symantec backup applications and OST-enabled devices, such as Quantum’s DXi-Series products.  The OST-enabled device performs replication or physical tape creation without the need to include media servers.  This means that only changed segments are replicated, creating savings in bandwidth and, importantly, time.  Additionally, the backup catalog is aware of all copies and those copies follow established retention policies.
• Ease of implementation and use. Packaged as turnkey appliances with an all-inclusive software feature approach, the DXi6500 family is designed to be installed by the user or channel partner.  The DXi6500 is a set-it-and-forget-it appliance, requiring little to no user intervention.  All DXi6500 systems are supported by Quantum’s QuikFit hotline to help make product sizing quick and easy.
• Deduplication configuration. The Quantum DXi6500 family employs an “adaptive” style deduplication, allowing deduplication processing to be optimized for the backup data stream.
• Scalability. As previously noted, all models, except the DXi6510, are expandable to 32 TB (DXi6520) or 56 TB (DXi6530, DXi6540, and DXi6550).  Models can easily scale by adding capacity onsite without a service visit.

Still Work to Do

The next steps for Quantum should be to leverage its brand and trusted stature within its tape business base—especially those organizations contemplating disk and those channel partners who can assist with the transition from tape to disk.  Quantum needs to continue bolstering confidence with its end-users and channel partners to demonstrate that the company has what it takes to help them make the transition.

The Bigger Truth

The introduction of Quantum’s new midrange appliances, aimed at being value-priced and simple to install and configure, will make the company more competitive with Data Domain in the mid-market, a segment where Data Domain won early market share but seems to be de-emphasizing now that it has access to EMC’s larger, enterprise-scale customers.  Quantum’s DXi6500 family has several feature advantages—for possibly as much as half the price of Data Domain’s comparable solution.

Quantum streamlines decision-making by including many features in its DXi6500 models that mid-market organizations value in a backup-to-disk solution—and offers them at a competitive price.  End-users transitioning from tape- to disk-based backup strategies have many choices; however, Quantum is addressing mid-market customer requirements with solutions that fit many of the segments’ needs.  The DXi6500 family offers a NAS or OST interface, flexible scalability, high performance, and advanced features, packaged and priced for impact—especially versus Data Domain.

[2] Source: Ibid.

[3] Source: Ibid.

[4] Source: Ibid.