Storage Virtualization
Defining Storage Virtualization
What Storage Virtualization Does
ƒ Creates an abstraction
layer that separates
physical storage from
logical storage
ƒ Enables storage-
resource optimization
Virtualization layer
by creating a unified
capacity pool
ƒ 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.