Does anyone really want to embed dedupe code?

A source close to Compellent said its deduplication plans did not include Ocarina or Permabit software.

HDS has just signed a deal to resell FalconStore deduplication products and although it is an Ocarina reseller, as is HP, it has said nothing about developing data reduction code for its own AMS and USP storage arrays.

IBM is rumoured be buying Storwize, a data compression vendor. There's no confirmation of this from a source close to Storwize, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. IBM also has its acquired Diligent ProtecTIER deduplication and this code could be moved to its DSX000 storage array products, the SAN Volume Controller, SONAS and so forth.

NEC has its existing HYDRAstore technology. Oracle has Sun's ZFS, which deduplicates data at the file system level but it doesn't have block-level dedupe outside ZFS. Quantum has its own DXi technology. Xiotech does not seem a good prospect because its strategy is to push storage controller functions "up the stack" from its ISE storage enclosures.

The three disk subsystem suppliers Dot Hill, LSI and Xyratex are unlikely as their products are developed in agreement with their main OEM partners, the players above. LSI Engenio does sell its own branded storage so that's a possible target.

That means the main storage OEM prospects for Ocarina and Permabit are likely to be 3PAR, BlueArc, DataDirect, IBM, Isilon, Fujitsu, LSI Engenio, Oracle, Panasas, Pillar Data and Xyratex. There are also other players such as Data Robotics, Infortrend and Overland Storage. The biggest fish Ocarina and Permabit could land are IBM and Oracle. 3PAR, BlueArc, Isilon and Pillar would be good wins but after that the prospects seem dimmer. HDS could still be an outside chance though, and would be a huge win.

Once this round of industry development is over then dedupe will truly be a feature, not a product. That will put increased pressure on stand-alone players like Sepaton and Exagrid to find and keep sustainable dedupe market niches in which they are the best of breed products. ®