This paper explores the factors that are driving the need for de-duplication and the benefits of data de-duplication as a feature of an organization's backup strategy. Topics covered in this paper include:

• Aspect of information growth and the resulting strain on backup
• Current data de-duplication technology and deployment
• Benefits of de-duplication and its positive impact on backup, replication, and recovery
• Factors that determine the effectiveness of data de-duplication
• Specific consideration of back-up-disk, remote office, and VMware backup environments
• Justify a data de-duplication investment

Finally, the paper briefly outlines EMC's de-duplication-enabled backup solutions optimized to meet backup needs, recovery requirement, and application environment.