Okay, so the dust it taking more time to settle on the whole EMC / DDUP / NTAP saga, so given this may go on for a while, let's try to shed some light on 'why' EMC would want this technology.
It's simple really, and it's analogues to the auto industry and hence the reference to the title of this piece. Rather than drone on about what 'Who killed the electric car?' I'll just tell you. GM, Chrysler, and Ford killed the electric car and by doing so drove themselves into bankruptcy and Toyota into the spot of number one car dealer in the world. The big difference? Toyota listened to its customers and developed and delivered products that consumers wanted. Consumers wanted safe, fuel efficient automobiles. Toyota delivered the Prius. GM built the Hummer, Chrysler built muscle cars and Ford continued to build on their truck reputation with more pickups. The American auto manufacturers killed the electric car. Had they listened to the consumer, they would have built more fuel efficient cars, consumers would have purchased them, and perhaps our dependence on foreign oil would be less significant, our world would be safer, and GM, Chrysler and Ford would still be in business and our economy would be a bit stronger. (Now, I am no politician and I can't say for sure that our world would be safer or that GM, Chrysler and Ford would definitely be in business, but I think you get the point.) The point is that vendors didn't listen to the consumer and now the vendors are wishing they had listened.
This is no different in the world of technology vendors. When I was an analyst for the Enterprise Storage Group, I saw a number of incumbent technology vendors discuss how they were building technology that complemented their existing product suite but didn't necessarily fit the important needs of their customers. After a short period of time (as with most things in the technology space) their technology would be replaced with a startup's technology ; the startup had listened to the customer's needs and developed and delivered on it. I also worked with a number of startup CEOs who believed they were building technology that no one could live without because it's what they themselves wanted, not what the consumer wanted. These companies usually went out of business pretty quickly.
So why have this conversation? Why now? As EMC speaks with its customers regarding data protection, two things are very clear. First, customers want to leverage the capabilities of data deduplication. Second, they want to leverage these capabilities in a manner that best fits their needs. This means that there is not a 'one size fits all' approach to data deduplication. Many vendors that have data deduplication capabilities love to argue the merits of the most appropriate 'place' to do data deduplication. The reality is, as with EVERY answer in IT, it depends. It depends on the use case and every customer has its own set of issues or use cases that are influenced by service levels and budget. It is important to provide customers with technology they want and in a manner in which they feel most comfortable consuming it.
When IT customers speak, they speak with their wallets. It is clear, today, that Data Domain is a vendor of choice when it comes to target based data deduplication technology. A big part of EMCs success is its ability to listen to their customers and provide them with technology they desire in a manner in which they want to consume it. EMC will continue on its consistent mission to own the very best intellectual property it can across its storage ecosystem because that is what contemporary IT demands.
EMC has been clear in its vision when it comes to capacity optimization technology and that does not change with the acquisition of new technologies. However, a vision can take time to develop and can morph based on customer demands. EMC will continue to drive toward an 'architecturally consistent and pervasive' capacity optimized infrastructure, but we will also provide best of breed solutions to customers in order to help them achieve their business objectives today.
Now let me go get into my gas guzzling truck, pick up some backup tapes and get on that 'Road to Recovery'.