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What is Data Deduplication in the Cloud?

Data deduplication is the process by which multiple copies of the same data are removed within an organization’s computing system. With the advance of cloud computing technology, more and more companies are hosting their data and applications on the cloud. Duplicate copies of data eat away at your company’s cloud storage space. This can cause your applications as well as your customer-facing websites and platforms to slow down significantly. It has been shown that customers only wait 3 seconds for a website to load before hopping off to another website, sometimes never to return. Data deduplication in the cloud eliminates redundant data from your cloud storage, freeing you up to deliver your product or service at optimum speed.

As an example, think of the last email that you sent to multiple people within your company. If your email contained an attachment, that means that each copy of that attachment was backed up by your company’s email server to the cloud. Now multiply this scenario by all the employees in your company. You can see how this can quickly overwhelm your cloud storage capacity. With data deduplication, only the original attachment is backed up. The other copies are replaced with pointers that take the user back to the original attachment.

Data deduplication saves cloud storage space and saves you money. Remember on the cloud, every byte counts. With data deduplication, you don’t take up valuable cloud real estate with redundant data. Optimizing how you use your cloud platform is critical to the success of your business.

On native public cloud, however, data deduplication is typically not available. Even if data deduplication is offered, this service will typically come as an expensive add-on. Furthermore, not all cloud service providers are created equal. You may end up being locked into a particular cloud service provider to obtain this single service, while implementing a multi cloud strategy may best suit the needs of your business overall.

But what if there was a way to obtain data deduplication to reduce your cloud footprint and associated cost, regardless of which cloud service provider you used?

Enter Silk!

The Silk Cloud DB Virtualization Platform is a virtualized layer that sits between your data and the cloud. Silk breaks the link between computing storage and performance on the cloud. As a result, you can store large amounts of data and still achieve peak performance, all without over provisioning cloud resources.

Silk offers rich, enterprise data services including data deduplication, zero-footprint snapshots, data reduction, and thin provisioning. These features are not available in native cloud alone. Silk’s deduplication service helps to minimize the amount of cloud resources you ultimately need, which in turn, helps to keep your cloud costs under control. With Silk’s zero-footprint snapshots and data reduction (data compression) services, you don’t have to prolong your backup intervals due to cloud storage constraints. In this way, your data becomes more resilient, and can withstand disruptions without interrupting normal operations.

If you’re migrating from Oracle Exadata, you may have noticed that your once neatly compressed data has now ballooned once on the public cloud. Oracle’s Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) technology works to significantly reduce your cloud storage footprint. The only issue is this HCC technology only works on Exadata. Silk combats data inflation once you’ve migrated to the cloud. With Silk you can quickly migrate your data and applications to the cloud and get the high level of performance you need, at a price that won’t blow your budget.

Data Deduplication FAQs

How is data deduplication in the cloud done?

Data deduplication techniques fall within two main categories: inline deduplication and post-processing deduplication. Inline deduplication occurs in real time as the data is being generated and stored to the cloud. Post-processing deduplication occurs after the fact. Silk provides inline deduplication services, which actively removes redundant data so that your cloud storage never gets out of control. Silk’s data deduplication keeps your cloud resources to a minimum, which in turn lowers your cloud bill at the end of the month. Trust us, your bottom line will thank you.

What are the benefits of data deduplication in the cloud?

As companies continue to migrate to the cloud, data deduplication allows you to optimize your cloud storage capacity. With Silk’s inline data deduplication services, redundant data is automatically removed from your cloud storage. This reduces the amount of cloud resources that you need, which in turn lowers your cloud bill. By partnering with Silk, you can focus on growing your bottom line, not your cloud bill.