The data backup window has expanded into the morning hours and has begun to affect production users. The main bottleneck in the process is the time it takes to replicate the backups to separate severs

Implementing deduplication at the network level typically refers to WAN optimization techniques, which apply during transit, rather than reducing the actual amount of data stored or prepared for replication from its source on the storage array.

Implementing deduplication on the local storage array, where backups are initially stored, directly reduces the physical volume of data. When this deduplicated data is then replicated to the offsite data center, a much smaller dataset needs to traverse the network, which effectively shortens the replication time and thus the overall backup window.

Implementing deduplication on the server storage would reduce the size of the initial backups, but the bottleneck is specified as the 'replication of the backups,' implying the backups are already created and the issue is transferring them.

Implementing deduplication on 'both local and remote servers' is too vague and doesn't directly target the bottleneck of replicating the *backups themselves* from a consolidated backup target (like a storage array) to an offsite location.