While the Data Domain OS and technology remains core to the solution, Dell EMC has rebranded the portfolio to the PowerProtect DD Series as they release its next generation.

Data Domain is no more. Dell Technologies has introduced its PowerProtect DD Series Appliances, which is the next- generation of its Data Domain protection storage appliance. The company also announced new enhancements to Dell EMC Cyber Recovery, which was introduced a year ago as an orchestration add-on to Data Domain. The upgraded version has been branded as Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. Enhancements were also announced to Dell EMC PowerProtect Software for workloads on PowerProtect DD Series Appliances.

“With three major launches in three months time, we have done a full refresh of the portfolio,” said Beth Phalen, President, Dell EMC Data Protection Division at  Dell Technologies. “We have seen significant momentum with our integrated IDPA [Integrated Data Protection Appliance], and have augmented it with the X400. We have done a complete software refresh with PowerProtect Data Manager. And now with the DD series, this refreshes our targeted market as well.”

The PowerProtect line was introduced at Dell Technologies World as a counter to the hyperconverged infrastructure [HCI] companies like Rubrik and Cohesity.

“They were announced at Dell Technologies World and they were released at the end of July,” Phelan said. “We have had a really positive response to it, and have gotten some excellent feedback. The world is changing and wanted that option of an integrated appliance.”

Phelan emphasized that these new appliances focus on simplicity, ease of use, and scalability.

“We see scale in general being the super-compelling driver for customer IT decisions,” she said. “We saw an increase of almost 600 per cent compared to 2016 in terms of capacity, and we are making sure our products can meet that need. Customers also want more than the traditional backup structure, and to be able to reuse the data on Test and Dev, and they want this now. And they are increasingly concerned by cyberthreats.”

At Dell Technologies World, Phelan emphasized that while the new PowerProtect got all the attention, there was absolutely still a place for Data Domain.

“It continues to be a huge part of our portfolio, and there is a significant amount of innovation there,” she said then.

It will still be a significant part of the portfolio, but the Data Domain itself is now history, memorialized only by the DD tag, as PowerProtect becomes the master brand for the space. Phelan said that it made sense to transition the brand name with this next generation of the product, although she noted that it is still the Data Domain Technology under the hood.

“The technology of Data Domain is still there, and it’s still the same OS,” she said. “We aren’t moving away from that.”

The technology has been souped up considerably, however. There are three DD appliances, with the 9900 being the largest, the 9400 in the middle, and the lowest the 6900. They replace a family of four Data Domain appliances, so the portfolio has been simplified as well as enhanced.

“For backup, we have up to 38 per cent improvement in speed, and up to 36 per cent faster restores,” Phelan said. “In IOPS, we have a 50 per cent increase, to 60,000,  that can support up to 64 concurrent VMs. For networking, 25GbE and 100GbE are now supported.”

Capacity has also been increased, while the form factor has been halved.

“The 9900 now has 25 per cent more usable capacity – in half the rack space,” Phelan said.

PowerProtect CyberRecovery, which was launched last October as part of Data Domain, has also been rebranded around PowerProtect.

“We are now increasing the orchestration, making the restores more simple, and deepening the integration with PowerProtect Data Manager and with Index Engines, to assure the data in the vault hasn’t been impacted by a Cyber Event.” PowerProtect Cyber Recovery can now automate restoration from a secure, isolated vault, removed from the surface of attack.

Dell EMC PowerProtect Software, which was introduced last April at Dell Technologies World, was also enhanced to improve its data management capabilities. These include interoperability with the new PowerProtect DD Series Appliances, more integration with VMware vSphere, PowerMAX storage integration, and Dell EMC Cloud Disaster Recovery.

Phelan emphasized the significance of these announcements for the Dell EMC channel.

“We are stressing what a great tech refresh this is for the thousands of partners that sell this,” she said. “70 per cent of Data Domain sells through the channel. It also enables their ability to advise on solutions, particularly around PowerProtect Cyber Recovery, and we are encouraging partners to take advantage of that.”

The three new PowerProtect DD Series Appliances  will be available globally September 30, 2019. Dell EMC Data Domain Virtual Edition and Dell EMC Data Domain DD3300, now branded Dell EMC PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition and Dell EMC PowerProtect DD3300, are available now. Enhancements to Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery and PowerProtect Software are available now.