Data deduplication is a blazing hot item for companies that are on the hunt for cost-effective storage solutions. A recent article depicted the huge impact on cost per terabyte of data deduplication together with compression provisioning on Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager. This is just one of the many transformations that this subject has brought major enterprises. However, there are various facets that need to be understood.

In a slide presentation seen here, various aspects of data deduplication and its revolution are discussed: “The data growth challenges that every organization is facing are pushing the implementation of new backup and recovery technologies to help meet service level agreements around availability and performance. Shrinking budgets are pulling IT departments in the opposite direction.

“Data Deduplication is a technology that helps organizations balance these opposing demands. Disk based backups can be rolled out in order to reduce the backup window and improve recovery time, and deduplication means the investment in those disk based targets is maximized.”

The latest spur in demand for data deduplication has prompted various organizations to revisit their portfolio and see where they can fit in within the vast sphere of opportunities. BlueArc, despite a two years of consecutive losses, will re-file for an IPO. It’s hoping to raise $100 million with the re-entry. The company is one of the first forward thinkers in digital technology that explored potential of granular facet of deduplication. Sharing the same interest, Quantum just announced its acquisition of Pancetera whose products can already send the former’s backup files to disk product line.

But perhaps two of the fastest growing enterprises when we talk about data deduplication are NetApp and Permabit. In two separate occasions, Permabit leaders discussed storage efficiencies and their focus on deduplication (full video below). Before the first quarter of 2011 ended, the company announced the evolution of their product Albeiro for Linux. This June, they added 4 new patents to their portfolio. NetApp, on the other hand, barely needs introduction as the company became a czar in cloud and storage industry. CEO Tom Georgens in a video seen in siliconANGLE.tv explained the unprecedented growth of NetApp.

With cost saving measures tied to its name, IT economics is seriously considering the furthered research and enhancement of data deduplication. In finding the most suitable provider, an organization must first understand their data center and then identify what deduplication solution will they be tapping.