Deduplication, the process of scrutinizing a storage device, finding data redundancies and removing them systematically, is one of the most common ways of freeing valuable disk space. This system, however, may not be viable on virtual servers.

According to a recent article in Virtual Strategy Magazine, the inherent protocols used to create virtual server environments are not conducive to deduplication techniques.

When a virtual server is created, all of the data needed to establish the infrastructure is compiled into a virtual file called a golden image. Once a company has created their golden image, it is used as the basis for the creation of the other virtual servers on a network. Over time, individual configurations for virtual server hosting are added, making each environment unique.

This golden image method of establishing virtual environments creates an inherent data redundancy in which large amounts of base code are duplicated over a virtual data center network. As a result, any deduplication program would take too long to identify redundancies, perform the algorithms necessary to analyze them and delete the superfluous data.

No dedupe, a system that completely removes any redundant information immediately, is considered a better tool for virtualized servers. By using no dedupe, the golden image data can be immediately dropped from a server's storage once it has been customized to match its host.

A recent article on ITEnterprisePlanet.com details the importance of deduplication or no dedupe when it comes to protecting information on virtual systems because redundant information can easily fall prey to cyber criminals.

No related news.