Data reduction technologies play a critical role in environments in which storage administrators are attempting to do more with less. Dell Unity Data Reduction aids in this effort by attempting to reduce the amount of physical storage needed to save a dataset, which helps reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of a Dell Unity storage system. Dell Unity Data Reduction provides space savings through the use of data deduplication and compression. Data reduction is easy to manage, and once enabled, is intelligently controlled by the storage system. Configuring data reduction and reporting savings is simple, and can be done through Unisphere, Unisphere CLI, or REST API.

In Dell UnityOS version 4.3 and later, the Dell Unity Data Reduction feature replaces Dell Unity Compression. Data reduction includes deduplication, compression, and zero-block detection which potentially increases the amount of space savings that can be achieved. Once the Dell UnityOS has been upgraded, data reduction enabled storage resources can be created, or data reduction can be enabled on existing storage resources which support data reduction. All resources with compression enabled previously will automatically begin using the data reduction algorithm. All compression references, including ways to manage compression and view space savings information, have been updated to utilize the data reduction terminology. For more information about Dell Unity Compression and features prior to the UnityOS version 4.3 release, refer to the Dell Unity: Compression white paper found on Dell Technologies Info Hub.

This white paper discusses the Dell Unity Data Reduction feature, including technical information about the underlying technology of the feature, how to manage data reduction on supported storage resources, how to view data reduction savings, and the interoperability of data reduction with other features of the storage system. Best Practices information for using Dell Unity Data Reduction, along with information about when to enable data reduction, can be found in the Dell Unity: Best Practices Guide white paper found on Dell Technologies Info Hub.