Fix the "backup window" and "restore speed" problems while reducing long-term storage costs. 2. The Key Differentiator: Two-Tier Architecture Most deduplication appliances do inline deduplication (dedupe as data arrives). ExaGrid does post-process deduplication with a unique landing zone.

Landing Zone Size = Daily Change Rate × Retention Days (in landing zone) Example: 5 TB daily change, keep 7 days in landing zone → 35 TB landing zone needed.

| Tier | Name | Function | Deduplication | |------|------|----------|----------------| | 1 | | High-speed, non-deduplicated disk cache where the most recent backups land | None (full hydrated copies) | | 2 | Long-Term Repository | Deduplicated, compressed storage for older retention data | Yes (global deduplication across all data) |

1. What is ExaGrid? ExaGrid is a purpose-built backup storage appliance. Unlike general-purpose storage (SAN/NAS) or other deduplication appliances, ExaGrid uses a unique two-tier architecture (Disk Cache Landing Zone + Long-Term Retention Repository) designed specifically to address the challenges of backup and restore performance, scalability, and security.