Dell EMC Data Domain
| Company type | Public (until acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data storage |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Kai Li, Ben Zhu, Brian Biles |
| Fate | Acquired by EMC Corporation in July 2009 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto , United States |
Key people | Hugo Patterson (chief architect), Frank Slootman (former CEO) |
| Products | Data deduplication storage systems (e.g., DD200, DD690, DDX Array) |
| Parent | Dell EMC (after 2016 merger) |
Dell EMC Data Domain represented Dell EMC’s solution for data deduplication storage. Its origins trace back to the establishment of Data Domain, subsequently progressing through acquisitions by EMC Corporation and ultimately Dell EMC.
History
The technology was initially developed by an independent entity before undergoing acquisition and rebranding.
Data Domain Corporation
Founded in 2001 by Kai Li, Ben Zhu, and Brian Biles, Data Domain Corporation focused on target-based data deduplication systems designed for disk backup solutions. Shortly after securing initial funding, Hugo Patterson joined the team as chief architect. The company initially operated out of venture capital offices in the Palo Alto region, with Series A financing provided by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Greylock Partners in 2002.
The company achieved its first product sales in early 2004, marking its entry into the data deduplication storage market.
Funding, IPO and Acquisition
In 2002, NEA and Greylock led a $9.3 million Series A investment round for Data Domain. The following year, Sutter Hill Ventures spearheaded a $17 million Series B round, with participation again from NEA and Greylock. By 2005, these investors had contributed a total of $40 million.
Data Domain went public on June 27, 2007, with a market valuation of $776.5 million that surpassed expectations despite prior financial losses. The initial public offering priced shares at $15 each, above the anticipated range of $11.50 to $13.50, and the company was listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DDUP.
EMC Data Domain
In May 2009, NetApp announced intentions to acquire Data Domain for approximately $1.5 billion. However, EMC Corporation quickly countered with a superior bid of $2.4 billion and finalized the acquisition in July 2009. Following this transaction, Data Domain became a product line within EMC’s portfolio, marketed as EMC Data Domain.
Frank Slootman, former CEO of Data Domain, recounted his leadership tenure in a book published in 2011.
Post-acquisition, EMC incorporated Data Domain technology into its Data Protection Suite software and expanded the platform’s functionality. An analysis commissioned by EMC in 2013 emphasized Data Domain’s effectiveness in minimizing productivity losses associated with backup and data recovery tasks.
Dell EMC Data Domain
Following the 2016 merger between EMC and Dell, the Data Domain product line continued under the Dell EMC brand until 2019. During this interval, it was promoted as Dell EMC Data Domain. On September 24, 2019, Dell EMC transitioned the branding of Data Domain products to PowerProtect DD appliances, signaling a strategic initiative to modernize its data protection solutions.
Technologies
Data Domain technology was developed to substitute conventional backup tape libraries with more effective disk-based systems. It introduced rapid, lossless data compression tailored for streaming data by identifying duplicate segments within incoming data against previously stored content, resulting in performance gains far exceeding those of tape backup methods. Initially described as "capacity optimization," this technology eventually became widely acknowledged as inline "data deduplication." Additionally, the solution guaranteed data preservation well beyond standard system lifespans, fulfilling requirements for compliance and long-term archiving.
Distinct from many rivals, Data Domain was offered as a fully integrated file-system appliance that combined dedicated hardware, a proprietary operating system, and specialized file system software. This design ensured consistent performance and simplified administration compared to purely software-based or virtual tape library alternatives.
The scalability of Data Domain was further enhanced through the introduction of the DDX Array—a rack-mounted storage configuration that linked multiple appliances acting as controllers. This design allowed throughput to scale linearly with the number of controllers while supporting capacity expansion via internal or third-party external storage devices, delivering a high-performance unified storage environment surpassing the capabilities of standalone appliances.
Products and Services
The inaugural Data Domain product, the DD200 launched in 2004, provided 1.25 TB of storage capacity and supported data input speeds of 40 MB/sec. Its architecture prioritized CPU and RAM utilization over disk I/O, enabling performance enhancements that aligned with advancements in Intel processor technologies.
In May 2008, the DD690 model was introduced featuring quad-core processors capable of processing data at 166 MB/sec. This rack-mounted unit could be scaled by aggregating multiple DD690 systems into what was termed a "DDX Array."
By 2018, Dell EMC's DD9800 model supported up to 50 PB of addressable capacity (depending on configuration) and achieved data ingestion speeds reaching 8611 MB/sec, demonstrating substantial progress in enterprise-level storage capacity and throughput.