<s>
Storage	B-General_Concept
efficiency	I-General_Concept
is	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
store	O
and	O
manage	O
data	O
that	O
consumes	O
the	O
least	O
amount	O
of	O
space	O
with	O
little	O
to	O
no	O
impact	O
on	O
performance	O
;	O
resulting	O
in	O
a	O
lower	O
total	O
operational	O
cost	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Storage	O
Networking	O
Industry	O
Association	O
(	O
SNIA	O
)	O
defines	O
storage	B-General_Concept
efficiency	I-General_Concept
in	O
the	O
SNIA	O
Dictionary	O
as	O
follows	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
efficiency	O
of	O
an	O
empty	O
enterprise	O
level	O
system	O
is	O
commonly	O
in	O
the	O
4070%	O
range	O
,	O
depending	O
on	O
what	O
combination	O
of	O
RAID	B-Architecture
,	O
mirroring	O
and	O
other	O
data	O
protection	O
technologies	O
are	O
deployed	O
,	O
and	O
may	O
be	O
even	O
lower	O
for	O
highly	O
redundant	O
remotely	O
mirrored	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
data	O
is	O
stored	O
on	O
the	O
system	O
,	O
technologies	O
such	O
as	O
deduplication	O
and	O
compression	B-General_Concept
may	O
store	O
data	O
at	O
a	O
greater	O
than	O
1-to-1	O
data	O
size-to-space	O
consumed	O
ratio	O
,	O
and	O
efficiency	O
rises	O
,	O
often	O
to	O
over	O
100%	O
for	O
primary	O
data	O
,	O
and	O
thousands	O
of	O
percent	O
for	O
backup	B-Protocol
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Snapshot	B-Application
technologyknown	O
formally	O
as	O
"	O
delta	O
snapshot	B-Application
technology	O
"	O
gives	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
use	O
the	O
same	O
dataset	O
multiple	O
times	O
for	O
multiple	O
reasons	O
,	O
while	O
storing	O
only	O
the	O
changes	O
between	O
each	O
dataset	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
storage	O
vendors	O
integrate	O
their	O
snapshot	B-Application
capabilities	O
at	O
the	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
and/or	O
application	O
level	O
,	O
enabling	O
access	O
to	O
the	O
data	O
the	O
snapshots	B-Application
are	O
holding	O
at	O
the	O
system	O
and/or	O
application	O
management	O
layers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Terminology	O
around	O
snapshots	B-Application
and	O
"	O
clones	O
"	O
is	O
currently	O
confusing	O
,	O
and	O
care	O
must	O
be	O
taken	O
when	O
evaluating	O
vendor	O
claims	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
particular	O
,	O
some	O
vendors	O
call	O
full	O
point-in-time	O
copies	O
"	O
snapshots	B-Application
"	O
or	O
"	O
clones	O
"	O
,	O
while	O
others	O
use	O
the	O
same	O
terms	O
to	O
refer	O
to	O
shared-block	O
"	O
delta	O
"	O
snapshots	B-Application
or	O
clones	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
And	O
some	O
implementations	O
can	O
only	O
do	O
read-only	O
snapshots	B-Application
,	O
while	O
others	O
are	O
able	O
to	O
provide	O
writable	O
ones	O
as	O
well	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Data	B-General_Concept
deduplication	I-General_Concept
technology	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
very	O
efficiently	O
track	O
and	O
remove	O
duplicate	O
blocks	O
of	O
data	O
inside	O
a	O
storage	O
unit	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
most	O
suitable	O
candidates	O
for	O
deduplication	O
are	O
backup	B-Protocol
and	O
platform	B-General_Concept
virtualization	I-General_Concept
,	O
because	O
both	O
applications	O
typically	O
produce	O
or	O
use	O
a	O
lot	O
of	O
almost	O
identical	O
copies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thin	B-General_Concept
provisioning	I-General_Concept
technology	O
is	O
a	O
technique	O
to	O
prevent	O
under-utilization	O
by	O
sharing	O
the	O
allocated	O
,	O
but	O
not	O
yet	O
utilized	O
capacity	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
good	O
example	O
is	O
Gmail	B-Application
,	O
where	O
every	O
Gmail	B-Application
account	O
has	O
a	O
large	O
amount	O
of	O
allocated	O
capacity	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Because	O
most	O
Gmail	B-Application
users	O
only	O
use	O
a	O
fraction	O
of	O
the	O
allocated	O
capacity	O
,	O
this	O
"	O
free	O
space	O
"	O
is	O
"	O
shared	O
"	O
among	O
all	O
Gmail	B-Application
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Actively	O
increasing	O
storage	B-General_Concept
efficiency	I-General_Concept
using	O
these	O
techniques	O
has	O
the	O
following	O
advantages	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
Backup	B-Protocol
and	O
restore	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Using	O
snapshots	B-Application
,	O
time	O
used	O
for	O
both	O
backup	B-Protocol
and	O
restore	O
RTO	O
can	O
be	O
minimized	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Snapshots	B-Application
also	O
allow	O
for	O
better	O
RPO	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Writable	O
delta	O
snapshot	B-Application
technology	O
allows	O
for	O
very	O
fast	O
provisioning	O
of	O
writable	O
data	O
copies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Examples	O
are	O
data	B-Application
mining	I-Application
,	O
test	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Snapshot	B-Application
integration	O
at	O
the	O
OS	B-General_Concept
and/or	O
application	O
level	O
also	O
leads	O
to	O
faster	O
provisioning	O
,	O
because	O
system	O
and/or	O
application	O
managers	O
are	O
able	O
to	O
manage	O
their	O
own	O
snapshots	B-Application
without	O
having	O
to	O
wait	O
for	O
storage	O
managers	O
and/or	O
provisioning	O
procedures	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
All	O
major	O
vendors	O
are	O
implementing	O
one	O
or	O
more	O
of	O
these	O
technologies	O
,	O
because	O
storage	B-General_Concept
efficiency	I-General_Concept
is	O
becoming	O
more	O
and	O
more	O
popular	O
.	O
</s>
