dedupilikaatio

Dedupilikaatio, also known as deduplication, is a technique used in data storage and management to eliminate redundant copies of data. The primary goal of deduplication is to reduce storage space requirements and improve data transfer efficiency. It works by identifying duplicate data blocks and storing only one unique copy of each block. Subsequent occurrences of the same data block are then replaced with a pointer or reference to the original unique block.

There are two main types of deduplication: file-level and block-level. File-level deduplication identifies and eliminates identical files. Block-level deduplication is more granular, breaking files down into smaller fixed or variable-sized blocks and identifying duplicate blocks within and across files. This finer-grained approach typically achieves higher deduplication ratios.

Deduplication can be implemented in various ways. Inline deduplication occurs as data is being written to storage, allowing for immediate space savings. Post-process deduplication happens after the data has been written, requiring a separate process to scan and eliminate redundant data. It is commonly employed in backup systems, archiving solutions, and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. While it offers significant storage benefits, deduplication can introduce computational overhead for processing and managing the unique data blocks and their pointers.