Creates an abstraction layer that separates physical storage from logical storage
Virtualization layer
Enables storage- resource optimization by creating a unified capacity pool
Masks complexities to simplify storage management
True virtualization provides a wealth of benefits for the user: Simplified storage capacity management: Administrator can focus on applications’ storage requirements instead of managing physical disk drives. They can increase storage capacity by simply adding disk drives, mixing and matching drives of any capacity or type. This can be done quickly and without bringing the system down. Efficient utilization of capacity. Striping the data across any and all available disk drives allows the system greater flexibility in how the storage is configured.
Simplified allocation of storage:
The user can carve out storage into “virtual disks” that can be allocated to servers when and where capacity is needed. The servers can then return the capacity to the storage pool when it is no longer needed.