De-duping continued …

A few weeks ago I blogged about an up-and-coming technology called de-duplication. My objective was to raise end-user awareness about the potentially huge benefits of applying de-duplication technology in secondary storage environments. But what I didn't talk about were all the other places de-duplication can be -- and will soon be -- applied. Data de-duplication technology has significant implications for primary as well as secondary storage environments -- and for archiving too.

So, what can end-users expect? A lot (and I mean a lot) of de-duplication talk from vendors across the board. De-duplication is clearly one of the storage industry's latest buzzwords, and it's only just beginning. Data de-duplication features are popping up everywhere. In the short term, they'll be most visible in data protection solutions, but over time they will be integrated into archive, compliance, and other information and storage management products.

In fact, de-duplication was the focal point of a recent conversation I had with Njini, a provider of data categorization software and a newcomer in the developing intelligent information management (IIM) space. Njini's software categorizes and tags unstructured data at its origin for future business leverage.

Do I think data de-duplication makes sense in this type of product? Yes. Do I think Njini should lead with this messaging? No. Because Njini's future lies in IIM, not data de-duplication. Data de-duplication is a feature, not a product. But the good news for them (and others like them who push data de-duplication) is that customers want de-duplication now. So, who cares about the other cool things your solution can do, take the money!

Bottom-line: De-duplication has massive real-world implications for users, and is clearly going to be a very important technological advancement for the next several years. Ultimately, however, it will be a "feature" -- just a cost of doing business.