Benefits of Virtualization
• Improved storage asset
utilization:
– Reduced storage cost
– Simplified management
• Improved management:
Virtualization layer
– Definition of storage policies
– Quality of storage services
– Reduces downtime due to
upgrades
• Architecture for the future:
– Scalability
– Flexibility
– Security
At its simplest level, storage virtualization is the process of organizing multiple
physical disk objects into logical, or "virtual," entities to better manage
capacity, automate procedures and increase performance. This ability to
manage virtual pools of stored data, rather than physically manage individual
disks, allows a range of necessary tasks to be performed more efficiently and
without downtime.
For example, new storage can be added to keep up with capacity demands, or
storage configurations can be changed to optimize performance or improve
availability levels.