EMC Expands SMB Channel Storage Push With DD160 Dedupe Appliance

That appliance, the DD160, is also a first for EMC in that it is the first Data Domain model designed for sale only through indirect channels.

The DD160 is an entry-level dedupe appliance with a total of either 1.6 TBs or 4.0 TBs of physical internal storage capacity. However, that 4.0 TBs stores between 40 TBs and 195 TBs of data after it is deduplicated, with the actual amount of logical capacity depending on how amenable the data is to deduplication. It can ingest data at a rate of up to 1.1 TBs per hour, EMC said.

Deduplication, also called "dedupe," removes duplicate information as data is stored, backed up, or archived.

Data Domain is a pioneer in the deduplication market, and has had a mix of direct and indirect channel sales. The company was acquired in July 2009 by EMC.

With the DD160, EMC is offering its first Data Domain dedupe appliance specifically targeting the channel, said Rob Emsley, senior director of product marketing for EMC's Backup and Recovery Systems division.

"We're continuing our efforts to produce products for the channel," Emsley said. "The channel has been a critical element of our go-to-market strategy. Data Domain has always had a high percentage of business going through the channel."

EMC's DD160 channel strategy closely mirrors that of the company's move early this year to offer its first series of SMB storage appliances, the VNX and VNXe, and make them available exclusively through solution providers.

EMC is hitting a sweet spot for the SMB storage channel with its DD160 dedupe appliance, said Jeff Flanery, vice president of commercial sales in the Kansas City Division of Alexander Open Systems, an Overland Park, Kansas-based solution provider and EMC partner.

"The DD160 is really about the entry point of the market," Flanery said. "It's doing enterprise-quality dedupe at an entry price point. We can position it with customers who before thought dedupe was too expensive. And we can start customers moving towards a managed services play."

Flanery said the DD160 can be used to do on-premises backup at the customer site, or to replicate data to a central office or to his company's data center.

The DD160 is replacing EMC's DD140 as its entry dedupe appliance, Emsley said. The DD160 lists for $10,000, compared to the DD140, which had a maximum physical usable capacity of 860 GBs, he said.

The DD160 is available through its global Velocity program channel partners including Avnet, Arrow, Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and Synnex.

Scott Look, vice president and general manager of the Technology Infrastructure Solutions Group at Avnet Technology Solution, said the introduction of the DD160 continues an SMB storage push EMC began with its VNXe for SMB solution providers.

The release of the VNXe nine months ago has led to a big SMB solution provider recruitment drive by Avnet, Look said.

"The DD160 is a great add-on to what partners have been doing in this part of the market," he said. "We'll go to partners we've already recruited and introduce them to the DD160 along with the VNXe as a total solution."

In addition to the DD160, EMC also introduced two other Data Domain models.

The DD620, which replaces the DD610, features physical user capacity of up to 8.3 TBs, and offers backup performance of 2.4 TBs per hour. It lists at about $20,000.

The DD640, which replaces the DD630, features up to 32 TBs of physical user capacity, and offers backup performance of 3.5 TBs per hour. It lists starting at $35,000.