Last year, EMC telegraphed that it planned to enable a software-defined approach to data protection in the form of what was then known as Project Falcon. This week, EMC made good on that promise with the launch of Data Domain Virtual Edition (DD VE).
Caitlin Gordon, director of product marketing at EMC, says DD VE is essentially an instance of software EMC created for its Data Domain appliances, running on a virtual machine. EMC envisions IT organizations deploying DD VE in, for example, public clouds or embedding it directly within another application, says Gordon.
Naturally, DD VE is not going to be as fast as a Data Domain appliance. It’s also only capable of scaling up to 16TB. But DD VE can replicate that data to any central repository an IT organization designates. A single DD VE instance can scale from half a terabyte to 16TB and can be expanded in 1 TB increments.
Creating what amounts to a virtual appliance may not be the newest of ideas. But DD VE does illustrate how data protection is evolving. Application workloads are now more distributed than ever. The challenge facing IT organizations is figuring out how to protect data in applications that reside in applications they may not have any direct control over.
Data protection may not always get as much attention as it deserves. But all it takes is one crisis to remind IT folks how much their job depends on data always being available regardless of where it happens to be housed.
