“Our DataDomain unit has significantly reduced our backup and restore burden. Tape usage, which previously required weekly manual intervention, is now reduced to an occasional rotation for off-site storage. Even with our wide variety of data, including everything from e-mail to already compressed data sets, we are seeing an aggregate 10x compression ratio. The increased capacity and flexibility our DataDomain unit provides allows us more backup options for our departmental users and has made backups and restores an order of magnitude faster.” — Scott Karlin
Manager, Computing Facilities, Department of Computer Science, Princeton University

Press Release

Data Domain Introduces Industry’s Highest Performance Inline Deduplication Storage System

New DD690 Sets New Price/Performance Bar for Inline Deduplication based on SISLTM Scaling Architecture
www.datadomain.com

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — May 12, 2008 — Data Domain (Nasdaq: DDUP), the leading provider of deduplication storage systems, today announced the DD690, the industry’s highest performance inline deduplication storage system for backup and other nearline applications. With aggregate throughput up to 1.4 TB/hour, and single-stream throughput up to 600 GB/hour to enable protection of large databases in short backup windows, the DD690 establishes consistently high benchmarks across the spectrum of common datacenter backup metrics. A fully configured Data Domain DDX Array with 16 DD690 controllers increases aggregate throughput performance to up to 22 TB/hour and offers up to 28 petabytes of usable capacity, delivering the capability for long-term online retention to large, consolidated datacenters.

The DD690’s price/performance is enabled by the Data Domain SISL™ (Stream-Informed Segment Layout) scaling architecture to minimize the number of disk accesses required in the deduplication process. Unlike many competing approaches, Data Domain systems ride the price/performance wave of multi-core processor architectures rather than depending on over-provisioned storage subsystems for throughput. As a result, Data Domain systems based on dual-socket controllers and minimum SATA-based storage configurations have improved in throughput by nearly a factor of ten from 2004 (150 GB/hour) to 2008 (1.4 TB/hour).

With the Data Domain Replicator Software option, the DD690 can automate WAN vaulting for use in disaster recovery (DR), remote office backup, or multi-site tape consolidation. A single DD690 system can support a replication fan-in from up to 60 remote offices using smaller Data Domain systems such as the recently announced DD120. The DD690 can deduplicate globally across remote sites, further minimizing required bandwidth since only the first instance of data is transferred across any of the WAN segments.

“Data Domain continues to scale its systems to address the demands of ever-growing environments,” said Heidi Biggar, analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “The DD690 raises the bar significantly in dedupe performance, capacity and replication functionality. These are just the type of enhancements that users -- particularly larger ones -- tell us they are looking for."

Like all Data Domain systems, the new DD690 is simple to install and flexible enough to be implemented into existing user environments without disruption. Backed by Data Domain’s available 24x7x365 enterprise class service, the DD690 supports leading backup and nearline software products on any standard storage fabric, including a new 10Gb Ethernet option. The DD690 is available as an easy-to-deploy appliance, or as the DD690g Gateway, which supports external SAN disk array storage.

The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a genomics research organization based in Maryland, has been beta testing the new Data Domain DD690 since early March, and recently moved forward with the purchase of the system. “We had a very positive experience with the DD690,” said Eddy Navarro, Storage Team Lead for JCVI. “JCVI runs a Linux based high performance grid computing environment. We’ve been very pleased with the performance and the strong deduplication ratios we’ve achieved, and the DD690 works very well with our Symantec NetBackup software. In addition, the IP-based replication capabilities and the availability of a gateway model of the DD690, which we have also now ordered, were definitely an attraction for us.”

Why Architecture Matters
The DD690 is based on the same CPU-centric approach to inline data deduplication as all Data Domain systems. Unlike most deduplication approaches that are added as afterthoughts to existing disk arrays, Virtual Tape Libraries (VTLs) or backup software, Data Domain’s combined efficiencies include:

  • SISL scaling architecture leverages CPU improvements to increase deduplication speed inline while minimizing reliance on disk accesses for performance. Data Domain systems have delivered consistent improvement in throughput performance by nearly 10x and in capacity by nearly 30x over the last 4 years. Based on Intel’s CPU roadmap, increased throughput is expected to continue growing in the future.
  • High Performance Inline Deduplication for simplicity, to minimize system resources, administration, and internal system process contention.
  • Green Storage Efficiency means a smaller system footprint, lower power consumption and less hassle.
  • Easy Infrastructure Integration with support for nearline, backup or archive workloads, as a local consolidated storage tier and for remote networked DR.
  • Data Invulnerability Architecture defends against data integrity issues by providing continuous verification during storage and recovery of data.
“The DD690’s performance is phenomenal,” said Brian Biles, VP of Product Management at Data Domain. “While most of our competitors will compete by highlighting disk subsystems that are vastly larger than deduplication storage requires, the DD690 shows that with the right architecture, the simplest configuration can also be the most powerful.”

The DD690 will be generally available in the second quarter of 2008 through authorized Data Domain channel partners. For more information about Data Domain’s Deduplication Storage systems, please visit www.datadomain.com.

About Data Domain
Data Domain® is the leading provider of deduplication storage systems. Over 1800 companies worldwide have purchased Data Domain systems to reduce storage costs and simplify data management. Data Domain delivers the performance, reliability and scalability to address the data protection and nearline storage needs of enterprises of all sizes. Data Domain products integrate into existing customer infrastructures and are compatible with leading enterprise backup and archive software products. To find out more about Data Domain, visit www.datadomain.com. Data Domain is headquartered at 2421 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054 and can be contacted by phone at 1-866-933-3873 or by e-mail at sales@datadomain.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including our continuing to scale our systems to address the demands of ever-growing environments; our expectations of increased throughput continuing to grow in the future and our products’ riding the price/performance wave of multi-core processor architectures; our competitors highlighting disk subsystems that are vastly larger than deduplication storage require; our products’ ability to provide faster access to data and advanced levels of data protection, and other statements identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated," "believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will" and "would" or similar words. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include any weakening of general economic and market conditions and customer budgets for information technology spending, our ability to anticipate market needs or develop new or enhanced products to meet those needs; market acceptance of our products; our ability to scale our distribution channels; our ability to recruit and retain personnel; our ability to compete in our industry; shortages or price fluctuations in our supply chain and the performance of our contract manufacturer; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Data Domain, the Data Domain logo and Global Compression are trademarks or registered trademarks of Data Domain, Inc. All other trademarks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

Contact Information

Data Domain

Edward Luboja
914-698-1346
press@datadomain.com


Lois Paul & Partners

Terry Frechette
1.781.782.5791
tfrechette@lpp.com