Dell Stares Down Dedupe Vendors with New PowerVault DL2000 Offering Powered by CommVault

In my many conversations with backup software vendors, I definitely get the sense that if they hear how great disk-based deduplication appliances are one more time, they will explode. Of course, part of the reason that deduplication appliances are getting under their skin while winning the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of many end-users is for one simple reason: turnkey deployments. But that option of turning primarily to disk-based backup providers for deduplication starts to change as today's joint announcement from Dell and CommVault makes plain. By bundling the CommVault® Simpana® software suite with the Dell PowerVault DL2000, companies can now purchase a single solution and get everything they need to protect their environment - data protection software, file deduplication and storage capacity.

Over the last few months DCIG has observed a growing number of data protection appliances that bundle data protection software and storage capacity in a single solution. The reason these solutions are so attractive is that many small and midsize businesses, after all of this time, still either do not backup their data or backup their data using a variety of point products. While using deduplication appliances certainly helps these size businesses improve their backup and recovery times using their existing backup software, if they do not have backup software or are using multiple products, the management of this backup data becomes extremely problematic on the backside.

This new hardware/software bundle from Dell, powered by CommVault, begins to change this situation in a number of important ways.

• Low entry price plus businesses get a "two-fer". The estimated retail price for this offering for the standard edition is $8,000 and $12,000 for the advanced edition (includes the file deduplication feature). This puts the solution well within reach for most small and midsize businesses (SMBs) since they get the hardware and software at the same time.
• It is the full-featured CommVault Simpana software suite. Competing products tend to either include a "lite" version of backup software or one that is not widely recognized. Because it is a full featured version, companies can lay the foundation for protecting and managing data across their enterprise. Further, for Dell enterprise companies already using CommVault, they can deploy this new Dell solution at the remote site and manage it and its data as part of its larger CommVault implementation.
• CommVault and Dell have worked to streamline the install and management of the appliance. All providers of these combined hardware-software appliances promise simplified install and management of their appliance so it is up and operational in 30 minutes or less. CommVault and Dell are no different in this respect. However some interesting tasks that this appliance automates is detecting the insertion of disks into the Dell appliance, file system creation and management and assignment of mount paths.
• The software is upgradeable. Data protection and management is only part of what is included in the CommVault Simpana software suite. Email archiving, file archiving, replication and search are all part of Simpana's broader product portfolio so companies can add these features as they need them. It also offers integration with major applications such as Exchange, SharePoint, Oracle, and SQL Server so that companies can obtain application consistent backups of these applications.
• Can utilize and manage existing disk and tape devices. It is possible that companies have existing disk and tape devices that they want to continue to use after they implement the appliance. Because Simpana remains hardware agnostic even though it is installed on the Dell hardware, it can still utilize and manage existing hardware devices that the customer already owns.

The one differentiator between this and deduplication appliances that companies do need to take into consideration is that they will need to install a Simpana agent on the physical and virtual machines in their environment. However this task is usually not onerous in these environments since the number of machines is usually minimal (20 or less). Further, once the install is complete, upgrades to the agents are done via push technology so agent management does not become a burdensome, recurring task.

The last few years deduplication vendors have gone head-to-head with backup software vendors and have often ended up looking down at backup software providers. By CommVault partnering with Dell on this new solution, the view for dedupe vendor changes considerably. For the first time in awhile, they find themselves looking up at CommVault and needing to come up with a data protection and management story that rivals CommVault's. Right now, it is looking like a very short story.