A system and method for data deduplication is presented. A deduplication system includes a plurality of data deduplication nodes; and a data deduplication control node communicatively coupled to the plurality of data deduplication nodes. The deduplication control node performs the operations of performing data deduplication operations at a deduplication system having one or more deduplication nodes at which deduplication data blocks are stored; monitoring a performance characteristic of the deduplication system; and adding an additional deduplication node to the deduplication system when the performance characteristic indicates performance of the system below a predetermined minimum.