Virtualization plays more and more important role in the life of IT. What could be a heap of physical boxes in the past now turns into just a bunch of files and a virtual infrastructure. VMware occupies 45% of the virtualization market and is a recognized leader in providing virtualization solutions.
Speaking about virtualization in general, we understand that virtually everything related to the IT is possible. One can create virtual hardware, network configuration, a single workstation or a set of virtual workstations, servers and so on. Let alone the central management and low costs of implementation, adoption and maintenance in comparison to physical hardware. Virtualization just changed the way IT goes.
With virtualizing hardware, network and OS I/O operations, we should not forget about storage virtualization which rapidly develops. Virtualization of storage helps achieve location independence by abstracting the physical location of the data.
With storage virtualization, multiple independent storage devices, that may be scattered over a network, appear to be a single monolithic storage device, which can be managed centrally. Usually data storage virtualization goes very closely along with shared storage virtualization. One of the major benefits of abstracting the host or server from the actual storage is the ability to migrate data while maintaining concurrent I/O access.
There are three main implementation approaches :
As for technology used in virtual storage virtualization, we can mention iSCSI, FCoE, SMB, VTL and others
Backing up virtual shared storage also becomes easier. This is more convenient and safe at the same time to backup a file than create a copy of a physical SAN.
What other implementation scenarios do you use in your environment? What are the main advantages for your IT environment do you find most important in using virtual storage?
Speaking about virtualization in general, we understand that virtually everything related to the IT is possible. One can create virtual hardware, network configuration, a single workstation or a set of virtual workstations, servers and so on. Let alone the central management and low costs of implementation, adoption and maintenance in comparison to physical hardware. Virtualization just changed the way IT goes.
With virtualizing hardware, network and OS I/O operations, we should not forget about storage virtualization which rapidly develops. Virtualization of storage helps achieve location independence by abstracting the physical location of the data.
With storage virtualization, multiple independent storage devices, that may be scattered over a network, appear to be a single monolithic storage device, which can be managed centrally. Usually data storage virtualization goes very closely along with shared storage virtualization. One of the major benefits of abstracting the host or server from the actual storage is the ability to migrate data while maintaining concurrent I/O access.
There are three main implementation approaches :
- Host-based
- Storage device-based
- Network-based
As for technology used in virtual storage virtualization, we can mention iSCSI, FCoE, SMB, VTL and others
Backing up virtual shared storage also becomes easier. This is more convenient and safe at the same time to backup a file than create a copy of a physical SAN.
What other implementation scenarios do you use in your environment? What are the main advantages for your IT environment do you find most important in using virtual storage?