
Data Management
Streamline Data Management With Data Deduplication
By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview
However, each time a customer repeats an order, the database stores a copy of an already existing prescription. Soon, your database starts filling up with duplicate data entries. Oops!
That's where Data Deduplication can swoop in to save the day - and your database! It identifies and eliminates the pesky, storage-consuming duplicate entries from your database. No more wasted storage space!
While it may seem like insignificant savings, imagine if a customer places the same order each month – you’ll have eleven copies from the same customer by the end of the year!
With Data Deduplication, you can keep your database streamlined and tidy, while ensuring consistent order processing, inventory management and customer service. Say hello to a seamless and optimized database management approach!
So, are you ready to deduplicate?
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Consider this real-life scenario: an organization is running a virtual desktop infrastructure with hundreds of identical workstations. This means it’s also running hundreds of copies of the operating system, business solutions and other software that the employees need. Is there a better way to deploy?
Yes – one with Data Deduplication at its core! The business can essentially store just one copy of the virtual machine and place “pointers” for the remaining systems. Wait, what’s a pointer – you may be wondering?
Well, it means each time a user wants to access a virtual machine, the pointer points them to the original deployment, saving the effort and resources of deploying multiple instances. Moreover, when the solution comes across duplicate data (i.e., data that is already stored somewhere else), rather than writing the data all over again, the Data Deduplication engine saves a pointer that redirects to the original data point.
Naturally, this frees up the tons of processing power and computing, that would otherwise have been needlessly occupied.
So, let’s understand all about Data Deduplication; its origin, working, benefits, types and future.
Read on!
Understanding Data Deduplication
Let’s expand on the above example – imagine a business has five thousand employees. With thousands of identical virtual desktops for each user’s system, the IT team would grow frustrated, right? After all, they would be using precious processing power and database space for duplicate assets (in this case, virtual machine instances). In such a scenario, Data Deduplication can significantly reduce the resources needed to run the thousands of virtual machines, while retaining a top-notch user experience for every employee!
This database management approach is a total game-changer as it can be used for various data formats and storage types. It uses something called “fingerprinting” to reduce duplicate data – we’ll look at it in more detail in a minute.
Unlike the technique of fingerprinting, Data Deduplication is relatively new – let’s see how it evolved.
Evolution And Origins Of Data Deduplication
As businesses grew, managing large amounts of data was challenging yet critical to efficiency and success. Hence, businesses wanted ways to identify and retain only useful pieces of data in their databases.
With the advent of the Internet and the adoption of personal computers in the 1980s, businesses and users started generating unprecedented amounts of data. To cope with the influx of data, disk capacities continued to increase and businesses expected data storage vendors to devise methods to store the ever-expanding stream of data.
In the late 90s, cloud storage and other alternative storage options appeared. Companies began moving their storage to virtual environments. This led to the data analytics revolution, which further enhanced the value of business data. Organizations across the globe put extra efforts into capturing, categorizing and storing every single piece of customer data. Yet, this meant their data storage systems would need to scale up as the amount of data being generated increased – a big ask.
That’s when businesses realized that even with bigger disk storage capacities, it made sense to explore other avenues to maximize the potential of their data storage. Hence, the need for improved data management techniques combined with the popular concept of identifying redundant data and storage vendors developed two major technologies to optimize data storage. These data reduction techniques were “compression” and “deduplication.”
As the names suggest, compression reduced the number of bits required to represent data, while deduplication identified and eliminated duplicate data.
So, let’s look at Data Deduplication in detail!
How Does Data Deduplication Work?
Data Deduplication might seem as simple as removing duplicate copies – but it’s more than that!
The process begins with the Data Deduplication engine splitting the input data stream (e.g., business files, database snapshots, virtual machine images, etc.) into multiple data “chunks.” Each chunk is uniquely identified by a cryptographically secure hash signature, also called a fingerprint. The size of the “chunks” can be fixed by the business; for example, it can be individual files, or variables based on the size and content of the file itself.
Next, the Data Deduplication engine creates a data fingerprint for each item that is written to the database or storage array. When the system comes across new data to be written, it checks for a matching fingerprint. If one is found, the additional data copies are saved as pointers that redirect to the original data point. Yet, if a completely new data item is to be written – one that does not have an existing/matching fingerprint on the array – the data point is stored instead of a pointer.
Hence, deduplication systems detect duplicates and ensure they are not stored but simply redirected to the matching fingerprint. They only store one copy of the data to save storage space and network bandwidth.
Unlike fingerprints, there are only two approaches to Data Deduplication – scroll on!
Types Of Data Deduplication
There are two primary methods to deduplicate redundant data:
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Inline Deduplication
In this approach, data is analyzed and redundant data is removed as it is being written to the backup storage. Although inline deduplication requires less backup storage, it can slow down systems as the system must constantly fingerprint incoming data and determine whether it matches any existing fingerprints. Hence, this Data Deduplication technique is not appropriate for high-performance storage.
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Post-processing Deduplication
This is an asynchronous backup procedure that eliminates redundant data after it has been written to backup storage. Duplicate data is removed and replaced with a pointer redirecting to the data's initial iteration. This allows users to deduplicate specific workloads but the disadvantage is that more backup storage space is needed compared to inline deduplication.
After fingerprinting information about the two types of Data Deduplication processes, let’s look at its many benefits.
Advantage Of Data Deduplication
In a survey conducted by IDC, nearly 80% of businesses said they were exploring Data Deduplication strategies for their storage systems to eliminate redundant data, improve storage efficiency and lower storage costs. Here’s what these businesses know – and you should too!
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Improved Storage And Backup
Deduplication allows users to significantly reduce the amount of space required for storage and backups because it only stores unique data.
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Lower Operational Costs
An optimized database enables businesses to make the most of their storage and eventually leads to significant reductions in the demand for computing, power, hardware, storage and processing, creating a more affordable data environment.
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Network Optimization
Local Data Deduplication optimizes storage, reducing the chances of transmitting duplicate information over a business network. Hence, rather than wasting bandwidth on redundant data transmission, the bandwidth can be used to improve network speed and performance.
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Faster Data Recovery
By removing redundant data from the mix, data deduplication expedites backup recovery. Backup time is decreased and business continuity is improved when only critical data is stored.
Wait, before you hop off to check how many duplicate files you have on your smartphone, read about the expected trends for Data Deduplication.
What’s The Future Of Data Deduplication?
Data Deduplication is efficient as it not only reduces the need for storage space by eliminating duplicate data but also reduces the transmission of redundant data. #TwoBirdsInOneHand
The increasing demand for Data Deduplication solutions will see its market valuation grow globally, rising from USD 9 million in 2022 to an expected USD 30 billion in 2033, at a CAGR of 12 percent. Data Deduplication will become more popular as businesses will need it to reduce redundant data, improve disaster recovery capabilities and lower operating costs. Data-driven businesses will continue to adopt deduplication platforms. Hence, Data Deduplication will soon become a staple service offered by database solution providers. In a nutshell – most businesses will soon say goodbye to duplicate data!
To Sum Up

Data Deduplication is a critical data management technique that enables businesses to achieve its goals of optimizing storage and improving data efficiency. Data Deduplication analyzes new data and maps its fingerprint to existing data, ensuring that no information is written twice to the database. Hence, Data Deduplication leads to significant benefits, such as reducing the overall storage costs, scaling virtual deployments and streamlining database management. There’s none other like Data Deduplication (pun intended!).
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Data Deduplication And How Does It Work?
Data Deduplication is a data reduction technique that eliminates redundant copies of data by storing only one instance and using pointers to redirect to the original data point. It works by splitting data into chunks, creating fingerprints for each chunk and checking for matching fingerprints to avoid storing duplicate data. This process significantly reduces storage space and network bandwidth usage.
What Are The Benefits Of Implementing Data Deduplication?
Implementing Data Deduplication offers several benefits, including improved storage and backup efficiency, lower operational costs, network optimization and faster data recovery. By eliminating redundant data, businesses can reduce the amount of space required for storage and backups, leading to cost savings and optimized database performance.
What Are The Different Types Of Data Deduplication Methods Available?
There are two primary methods of Data Deduplication: Inline Deduplication and Post-processing Deduplication. Inline Deduplication removes redundant data as it is written to backup storage, while Post-processing Deduplication eliminates redundant data after it has been written to backup storage. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, such as performance impact and backup storage requirements.
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