The Virtues of Storage Virtualization

And now for few words on storage virtualization: Having been editor of a webzine on storage networking in my not-so-distant past, I thought I would weigh in on this technology, which is dramatically improving the lives of storage admins and enhancing productivity at the growing number of organizations that are implementing it.

One of the long-standing problems facing IT organizations has been more fully implementing available capacity in storage devices, such as disk arrays -- whoa, wait a second. Let me back up and state this correctly, I should say that the problem has been more fully implementing capacity when it is possible to locate and assess all the underused storage devices across far-flung legacy IT infrastructures, which is like searching for a needle in a haystack at some companies.

In virtualized storage environments, multiple physical resources are pooled into a smaller number of physical resources -- which may be as small as one -- which reduces complexity and enhances access. Virtualized storage can also be dynamically adjusted to meet rapidly changing storage demands. Another benefit area that has drawn particular attention is the green story that is created in the data center by consolidating storage resources, reducing overall energy bills and slashing the amount of required data center floor space. Throw in less time spent managing tasks that can be automated centrally, and you end up with a pretty attractive technology package with "ROI" stamped all over it.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 10/20/2009 at 12:48 PM