Deduplikoinnilla

Deduplikoinnilla, often translated as deduplication, is a technique used in data management and storage to eliminate redundant copies of data. The primary goal is to reduce the amount of storage space required and improve data transfer efficiency. This is achieved by identifying identical data blocks or files and storing only one unique copy. When another identical block or file is encountered, a reference or pointer to the existing unique copy is stored instead of duplicating the data itself.

There are two main approaches to deduplication: block-level and file-level. Block-level deduplication works by dividing data into fixed-size or variable-size blocks and comparing these blocks for uniqueness. This method is highly effective for identifying similar data within files, such as in backup scenarios where many files might share common segments. File-level deduplication, on the other hand, compares entire files. If two files are identical, only one is stored. This is simpler to implement but less granular than block-level deduplication.

Deduplication can be performed in different ways, including inline deduplication, which happens as data is being written, and post-process deduplication, which occurs after the data has been stored. Inline deduplication saves space immediately but can sometimes impact write performance. Post-process deduplication does not affect write performance but requires additional storage space until the deduplication process runs. The effectiveness of deduplication is measured by its deduplication ratio, which indicates how much data was saved compared to the original un-deduplicated amount. This technology is widely used in backup systems, cloud storage, and network-attached storage (NAS) devices.