Nirvanix CloudNAS

Backup hardware

Bronze Award:

Data Domain DDX Array Series

Data Domain Inc. is a perennial medal winner in this category, and the data deduplication pioneer hasn't been standing still—and neither have storage growth and consolidation trends. This fall, the company shipped the mammoth DDX deduplicating array which, fully configured, can pack in 15 petabytes (PB). The new DD560 controller mitigates a common deduplication bugaboo: poor performance. A maximum 16-controller configuration has been benchmarked at up to 6.4TB/hour throughput. The DD560g gateway controller offers the same throughput and capacity supporting external array storage.

The DDX scales from four to 16 controllers, and can support the previous generation of DD400 series and DD500 series controllers. Whatever the configuration, the DDX product can complement all pre-existing Data Domain appliances, acting as a hub for recovery images from up to 320 remote locations. The box also includes the vendor's Data Invulnerability Architecture, which continuously and automatically verifies, detects and protects against data recoverability issues during the initial storage of backup data and throughout its life cycle.

As power concerns rise along with storage sprawl, Data Domain has made an effort to produce a "green" product that uses as little as 1.1 watts/TB of power. Several array configurations are also available for fewer than 35 cents/GB, according to the company. Our judges were nearly unanimous in their praise of the DDX, awarding it high scores across the board. "With inline deduplication and heterogeneous support, the economics of this solution are very hard to beat," they gush.

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