EMC gets Data Domain, now what?

will have deduplication as part of their backup scheme, which will represent about $2 billion in revenue.

"You ask storage professionals what their top priority projects are, and they'll tell you it's reclaim underutilized storage assets," Stevenson said, noting that deploying dedpulication is the number one way to regain that unused capacity.

In a survey of 305 enterprise-class or mid-sized companies completed in May, TheInfoPro reported that backup system redesign was the second highest project priority cited by Fortune 1000 companies, and that deduplication is the number one project in that backup redesign. Currently, 30% of Fortune 1000 companies surveyed have deduplication in place and 40% plan to adopt it in the next six months to a year.

According to Stevenson, 20% of 60,000 mid-sized companies in the U.S. have deduplication technology in place and 35% are considering deploying it in the near term. And the leading vendor in that deduplication space? None other than Data Domain, he said. EMC will not mess with that kind of success, he said.

Stevenson said he expect EMC will be true to its word and will run Data Domain as a separate entity, infusing money into R&D and increasing sales through its worldwide distribution channels and sales force. Eventually, EMC will likely integrate the deduplication technology into its various backup offerings, including Tivoli Storage Manager backup and archive software and its Legato NetWorker product.

Unlike its VMware and RSA acquisitions, which EMC generally allowed to flourish with little to no intervention, Duplessie said he doesn't believe EMC will be able to keep its hands off Data Domain because deduplication technology is so core to its primary storage and backup products.

Duplessie also said NetApp and Data Domain would have been a better fit because there were more synergies between their products and business strategies. "NetApp built a big company selling an appliance into the midstream market and that's exactly what Data Domain does," he said.

"EMC ... has all the execution risk. If they can execute, they not only have a chance to make all us analysts seem like idiots, but they took a weapon out of a fierce competitor's arsenal," he added.