EXCLUSIVE: Data Domain DD560

We created four backup-to-disk folders on the appliance and whilst running simultaneous backups of each server we noted that the Gigabit port on the media server was reaching saturation point. To resolve this we created a second media server and separated them onto two subnets using both the appliance's Gigabit ports. We ran two backup jobs simultaneously on each media server to secure itself and one remote agent and saw significant improvements with Backup Exec reporting an average cumulative speed of 80MB/sec - around 281GB/hr. GC made its presence felt immediately as although we had backed up a total of 52GB, the management interface showed total used space of only 22.5GB. This will improve on every subsequent backup and after rerunning the jobs five times used storage space had only increased to 23.5GB and yet we had backed up the equivalent of over 300GB.

The appliance is designed to handle up to twenty simultaneous streams but we also found that our second test was giving it a good thrashing as the system status screen was showing the appliance's CPU utilization as above 90 per cent. However, disk based backup appliances always score higher than tape for data restoration performance and the DD560 is no exception. We restored a 35MB mixture of user files to one of the test servers and the job took barely four seconds to complete.

Compared with FC disk arrays, performance clearly isn't the DD560's strongest point but it does deliver a whole lot of other valuable features with redundant data elimination at the top of list. With 5TB of physical storage on offer the GC technology can effectively increase this to an average of 100TB - all in a 3U chassis. This makes it very cost-effective as it can significantly reduce the space and support services required in the data centre.