Storing and managing data is a real and often expensive challenge for small businesses. Data multiplies so fast that rabbits look positively chaste by comparison, and a small company can struggle with both the time and the cost of keeping pace.
To help SMBs better manage multiplying data, Quantum recently announced the GoVault Data Protection Solution, which is designed to trim the fat out of backup and reduce the overall cost in the process.
The GoVault is a disk-based product that’s available either as a desktop dock or an internal server dock. It includes two rugged, removable cartridges for on-site and off-site data protection. Quantum is aiming the GoVault at SMBs that currently use, but are not happy with, tape backup and at businesses that are not backing up data at all (you know who you are).
What makes GoVault different, according to Tom Hammond, a Quantum project manager, is a technology called data deduplication. “Data deduplication looks at the entire data, sees what has changed and stores only the information that’s different,” said Hammond. The space saving can be significant, and Quantum claims that by using the data deduplication technology, GoVault reduces the number of cartridges you need at a ratio of up to 20:1.
Reduction Diet: Quantum designed the GoVault Data Protection Solution to reduce the time, money and overall load involved in managing data backup. |
Here We Go Dupe-De-Dupe
The basic idea behind deduplication is to remove redundant data from the backup so that your system stores only one instance of it. For instance, if you’re backing up an e-mail system, you might find that 50 people have the same 1MB e-mail attachment, which would require 50MB to back up.
A storage backup system using data deduplication would backup one instance of the file, reducing that file’s backup size to 1MB. A digital pointer refers back to the single 1 MB file, so the 49 other people can still access the file if needed.
In addition to saving space, deduplication can also save you time. Because you’re backing up far less data, the time it takes to complete the backup shrinks accordingly. Quantum lists GoVault’s transfer speed at 26-34MB per second and claims that GoVault performs “backups in minutes, restores in seconds.”
Hammond said that GoVault’s use of deduplication offers small businesses a cost-effective way to store and manage data, and that the product offers other benefits as well. “Small businesses want a system that’s easy to understand and use, offers simple data rotation and lets them take data off-site. GoVault gives them that,” he said.
Quantum offers GoVault as an “all-in-one” solution, meaning that you get the drive (either an internal dock to install in a server or an external USB 2.0 desktop dock), two cartridges and the GoVault Data Protection (aka deduplication) software. The cartridges are actually Seagate’s two-and-a-half inch mobile-drives in a mobile form factory.
Quantum said the cartridges are rugged, sealed and shockproof up to a three-foot drop onto a hard surface. The cartridges are available in 40-, 80-, 120- and 160GB capacities and have been designed with a 10-year shelf life.
The GoVault Data Protection Solution is available through Quantum’s channel partners, such as CDW and Ingram Micro, and at The Quantum Web site.
Pricing for the internal server solution starts at $419 (that’s with two 40GB cartridges) and tops out at $819 with the 160GB cartridges. Pricing for the external desktop version starts at $459 with two 40GB cartridges and goes up to $909 with two 160GB cartridges. Individual cartridge pricing starts at $100.
Article appeared originally on SmallBusinessComputing.com.