Storage Virtualization Briefing

What is it?

The goal of using storage virtualization is to reduce costs and increase efficiency without sacrificing data integrity or performance, all within the framework of current legacy systems. Currently, all major storage providers have some sort of storage virtualization strategy in place, with varying degrees of implementation in their product lines.

Storage Virtualization is a technology that pools physical storage capacity from multiple storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device, which is managed centrally. When implemented successfully, virtualization hides the complexity of physical storage devices and their specific requirements from users and data administrators, offering considerable potential for simplifying storage administration and reducing the costs of managing diverse storage assets.

Because data complexity adds to overall systems costs, finding ways to conceal complexity, automate tedious tasks, streamline administration, increase utilization, and still satisfy the requirements of high performance and data availability saves money, and that is the bottom line goal. This is the ultimate promise of storage virtualization, although in reality, many of today’s systems still fall short.

Why use it?

By “virtualizing” vendor-specific storage into its generic form, virtualization products can be used to increase utilization of existing hardware and simplify administration of storage systems. In addition, it becomes simpler to allocate storage and storage costs according to data usage and value, and facilitate consolidating higher-end storage arrays, and replacing with much cheaper disk assets, all while totally transparent to end user.

The storage analyst firm, Enterprise Strategy Group, found that early adopters of storage virtualization saved an average of 24% on hardware costs, 16% on software and 19% on SAN (Storage Area Network) administration annually. This represents significant savings for firms with large IT budgets.

How does it work?

There are different approaches to storage virtualization including SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network Attached Storage) products, appliances, switches, hybrid systems and full and partial virtualization. Each approach has its merits and costs, and should be carefully analyzed and customized to meet the specific needs of the end user.

Percept’s extensive storage technology expertise enables our team to fully test and prove your specific storage virtualization system to fully understand and optimize performance and functionality.

Begin with a free consultation.