The virtual answer
Multivendor provisioning grows easier with new storage virtualization wares.
By Joanne Cummings
,
Network World
, 06/27/2005
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Storage virtualization isn't a new concept, but it's getting a lot of attention lately as the top storage vendors launch next-generation
virtualization wares. The vendors vary on their approaches - some put virtualization in the network, while others put it at
the edge or in the array - but they all attack the same basic problem: simplifying storage management.
In traditional storage setups, the intelligence necessary to perform key storage functions such as snapshot copying, data replication and disk mirroring
are handled primarily at the host or server level. Implementing virtualization, in which servers view all enterprise storage
devices as one large pool of storage, means adding the software, device drivers and so on to each individual server - a situation
that is notoriously tough to manage.
The first attempt to move the intelligence necessary for storage virtualization into the network came in 2000-2001 with appliances
such as DataCore's SANsymphony and FalconStor's IPstor. These appliances let users pool storage while eliminating the need
for drivers and licenses for each server. But this approach never really caught on, primarily because the main Tier 1 storage
vendors didn't play along. "We looked at FalconStor's IPstor appliance when we put in our SAN a while back," says Bo Christiansen,
IT consultant at SDC Udvikling, a Copenhagen, Denmark, financial firm. "It raised the possibility to integrate the different
storage technologies under one GUI, which we liked. But there were some problems with how it worked and vendor lock-in. We
decided to wait to see if we could get the virtualization without being locked in to a small vendor."
IBM became the first large vendor to embrace virtualization fully with its SAN Volume Controller (SVC), introduced in July 2003
as a network appliance or as a blade within Cisco's MDS director-level SAN switch. IBM has made considerable headway with
the SVC since last August, when it added the ability to manage arrays from Hitachi Data Systems, HP and EMC; the company announced
its 1,000th customer this March.
Hitachi has since rolled out its TagmaStore array-based virtualization, and Sun its StorEdge 6290 controller/array system.
And EMC hit the market in May with its Invista virtualization software, which runs on Cisco, Brocade and McData director-level
switches.
This is all good news for users, who are struggling with explosive growth in storage coupled with the need to better manage
stored data because of compliance pressures.
"Storage is going crazy. We see it going up 25% to 30% a year right now," says Al Todd, senior vice president of IT at Pacific
Capital Bancorp, a regional bank in Santa Barbara, Calif. "We can't get enough data on customers - we want to know their shoe
sizes, what they had for breakfast this morning, everything. But the problem is, how are we going to manage it?"
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Comments (1)
RE: The virtual answerBy rkgejh on January 5, 2008, 5:36 pmhow are you?
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