it ain't de-dupe
Fundamental to de-dupe is the premise that the data remains unchanged to the client. Sure, DataDomain & co may do cunning things in the background to remove identical blocks, but when you read the data you get back exactly what you had in the first place. Not so Ocarina as far as I can make out. Here, the data is actually changed at the presentation layer. JPEGs are downsized, etc. OK, that is a useful tool in spots but it's not generally applicable and is not de-dupe. Imagine the angst when someone goes to view a document and sees their high res JPEG replaced by a medium res one... I get the feeling that Playboy.com won't be using this tool.
I also wonder about the viability of using a third party tool created & supported by a tiny company to irreversibly change my data. Perhaps HP are happy to do this because hardly anyone buys their NAS stuff anyway? Personally I'd rather use real de-dupe and real compression... and get back my data exactly the way I wrote it. I'd also like to buy from a company that I am confident can support me. If all my Whitesnake MP3s get replaced by Winnie the Pooh GIFs I need to turn to a trustworthy company and not a startup!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
