SAN-based storage virtualization: Five benefits for your customers

Storage virtualization is getting a lot of press these days, but it isn't new. Host-based volume managers have long enabled nondisruptive extension, reduction and migration of application data independent of the disk storage. Soon after the emergence of host-based volume managers, storage left the host, and we connected to external cached disk arrays, which hid the messy details of SCSI targets, controllers and RAID protection from the servers. Not long after that, we installed storage area networks (SANs), further virtualizing the connectivity to storage. No, virtualization is not new; it's what modern storage systems are all about!

Even with all the storage virtualization benefits we enjoy today, there are still several storage management problems left unsolved. Storage customers complain that it's tough to migrate data from one storage platform to the next and that the administrat

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ive burden of storage systems is still too manual and difficult. These challenges mean that storage teams have to spend all day keeping the system running, instead of optimizing it.

SAN-based storage virtualization holds the promise of addressing these problems, enabling you to improve your customer's data management and deliver storage efficiencies. Empowering customers to migrate and manage data quickly means that they will be more inclined to refresh aging technology. This tip covers five value propositions for SAN virtualization.

Storage virtualization in all of its forms has been providing benefits to businesses for years; yet there are still some challenges that remain. It's easy to see that SAN-based virtualization holds a lot of promise for the industry. Discuss these value propositions with your customers to open their minds to the possibilities of SAN virtualization.