NEWS ANALYSIS the bigger truth
The Impact of Storage Environments on Server Virtualization
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Lauren Whitehouse Senior Analyst, ESG
In the third of a three-part series on virtualization and storage, this section focuses on the impact of storage and storage management at each stage of ESG’s Virtualization Maturity Model.
SG captured the evolution of virtualization technology adoption in its server virtualization maturity model, which segments users into one of three groups based on their current state of virtualization sophistication: Basic, Progressing, or Advanced. The segmentation model reveals a few things about organizations at each stage of progression: as firms gain experience with server virtualization technology and align their processes, technologies, management tools, and personnel with a virtualized data center model, they can more rapidly advance through phases of the model.
What is most noticeable about the relationship between storage and the various maturity stages is that there are both similarities and differences between stages. Scale and flexibility are constant requirements throughout; a non-disruptively scalable storage system is key. What varies from stage to stage are the key storage challenges. For example, at the Basic stage, the most important challenges are related to cost, scalability, and sizing performance needs. What’s needed from storage, therefore, are systems that are economical and extremely scalable in terms of adjusting performance and capacity in non-disruptive ways.
Storage at Basic Level Virtualization Initiatives At this early stage, organizations are just getting accustomed to the server virtualization paradigm. The technology is new and IT staffs’ skills are most likely at a novice level. The primary drivers for deploying virtualization are server consolidation and improving utilization; therefore, the expected benefit of this type of initiative is primarily capital cost savings.
A key challenge that is apparent now (and again and again down the road) is cost. This can be mitigated by extreme scalability and tight integration with VMware. Users need to consider how storage will deliver cost savings or it will just eat up whatever savings server consolidation made possible. Storage features such as thin provisioning, capacity optimization, and tiering, for example, can accelerate server virtualization ROI. Good decisions made at the Basic stage could save significantly at successive stages.
Since the initiative will mainly focus on virtualizing applications and services that are under the direct control of the IT group, there is little
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to no negotiation with line-of-business (LOB) owners regarding SLAs. Therefore, little priority is placed on business continuity, disaster recovery, or backup processes in the very early stages.
Whatever was in place in the physical environment generally gets carried over to the virtual one – even if it has to be force fit. If the virtualization environment requires a refresh of infrastructure anyway, examining business continuity components such as replication and backup now could alleviate next-stage unpreparedness to meet scale requirements.
Moreover, the next phase in the segmentation model is characterized by scale and often coincides with a “virtualization first” policy. Organizations gain confidence, skills, and ROI in the Basic stage of virtualization, so standardizing on virtual infrastructure for new system and application deployments may become the norm. In addition to evaluating infrastructure and new architectures that scale, preparedness when it comes to a business continuity strategy could alleviate the issues that accompany virtual sprawl.
Storage at Progressing Level Virtualization Initiatives
At the Progressing level, organizations are gaining skills with virtualization technology and leveraging them for new systems and applications that are a fit for virtualization. IT organizations are benefitting from the operational expense savings associated with the ease and agility of new system deployment, management, and the improvements in application test/development.
As the virtual environment scales, so too does its complexity. Scale requirements force continued IT investments in infrastructure – with organizations having more of a tendency to investigate next- generation technologies and leverage virtualization as a catalyst for change. Scale also means that companies are virtualizing not only basic IT services, but now also focus on virtualizing tier-2 applications. As users proceed with virtualization maturity, what is most crucial is non-disruptive, flexible storage, with just-in-time scalability and tight integration with virtual machine replication/backup.
When it comes to business continuity, a few things are evident at this stage. First, the scale of the environment (especially with respect
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