IBM brings deduplication to mainframes

IBM is bringing deduplication to its System z mainframes via a hardware and software appliance that it says can help compress certain tape backup data by 25 times.

Its product is called the IBM System Storage TS7680 ProtecTIER Deduplication Gateway for System z, and includes a virtual tape library, data deduplication technology, and disk-based storage target options. It is available now, runs on z/OS 1.9 and higher, and will cost about $300,000. Some other details:

• FICON attach to System z host
• Use of any IBM disk for back-end storage
• Up to one petabyte of storage capacity per device
• A single virtual tape library image with up to 256 virtual tape drives
• Up to 1 million virtual tape volumes

Part of the dedupe technology is called HyperFactor, which IBM got through its acquisition in 2008 of Diligent Technologies, a storage company out of Framingham, Mass. that specialized in de-deduplication. As early as May 2008, just a month after being acquired, Diligent officials were talking about how IBM’s roadmap for the company included eventually integrating mainframe support for its ProtectTIER dedupe technology.

Deduplication isn’t new to the mainframe world. Data Domain, now owned by EMC, offers it as a joint package with Luminex, and has been doing it for about four years now. Another company that offers it is Bus-Tech.