Storage Virtualization

Storage Virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in a storage area network (SAN). The management of storage devices can be tedious and time-consuming. Storage virtualization helps the storage administrator perform tasks such as backup, archiving, and recovery more easily, and in less time, by disguising the actual complexity of the SAN.

Storage Virtualization is still relatively early in the adoption curve, but it's gaining traction fast. With companies creating so much information, IT departments are coming up with various ways to consolidate storage and get the most out of each storage systems. Schemes like thin provisioning and tiered storage work well, but managing all those devices can soon become a headache. Storage virtualization provides a way to combine all those drives into one centrally manageable resource, which can benefit customers via time and money savings. Better yet, storage virtualization lets you make changes to the storage configuration without downtime, making data migrations more palatable.

Virtualization in general is the separation of a device's functions from its physical elements. For instance, server virtualization separates computation and I/O from the plastic and metal server, thus letting administrators run several virtualized servers on a single physical server. Storage virtualization is similar in that a unit's physical drive is separated from its function, which is to store data. But while this concept applies to several storage concepts, such as SANs, RAID and thin provisioning, the term "storage virtualization" is generally used to refer to a process by which several physical disks appear to be a single unit.

To see how Maywood Solutions can reduce the complexity of your storage infrastructure and save you time and money, contact us today.