F5 White Paper Sample

Automated storage tiering with F5 ARX gives organizations the flexibility to optimize their file storage infrastructure by automatically moving file data to the appropriate storage tier as its value changes over time. Through virtualization, ARX moves files in a manner that is transparent to users and applications, maintaining online access regardless of file location. This flexibility enables organizations to take advantage of the wide array of storage technologies available today.

Data deduplication is one such storage technology that can dramatically reduce storage costs. By searching data streams for multiple instances (duplication) of the same data, then replacing the duplicate data with pointers to one reference instance of the data, deduplication can significantly reduce the amount of storage capacity required. Most vendors originally applied deduplication technology as a disk-based backup technology, but some have expanded its use to provide cost-effective, longterm file storage. In particular, organizations are deploying Data Domain deduplication storage to dramatically reduce both the capital and operating costs of storing file data for extended periods of time, while protecting data integrity and enabling rapid disaster recovery.

This paper explains how organizations can leverage deduplication storage in a tiered infrastructure to provide a simple, cost-effective solution to the problem of data growth.