The Storage Virtualization Spin

Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at Chi, a Cleveland-based storage solution provider, on services opportunities for thin provisioning.

A FULL RANGE OF SERVICES OPPORTUNITIES: Opportunities range from the initial architecture, design and integration into an existing storage environment, as well as ongoing support. There's a great deal of knowledge transfer involved, especially if the customer is not used to thin provisioning. As with a lot of new technology, as you get used to it, you will discover new ways to use it.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CUSTOMER'S ENVIRONMENT: Thin provisioning, and storage virtualization in general, requires high-level people to understand it. For most customers, we look at their applications and the number of servers they have in order to help demonstrate the value of thin provisioning. It's important to ask them how frequently they experience downtime in their environment. This leads to questions about applications and servers, and how to scale it to their demands.

IMPLEMENTATION IS OFTEN THE EASIEST THIN PROVISIONING-RELATED SERVICE: With many storage technologies such as products from FalconStor Software or Compellent Technologies, we have a standard module already included for thin provisioning. How to use it for customers depends on the complexity of their environment, including the number of servers and applications, and their storage requirements. The thin provisioning piece is actually pretty easy.

BE PREPARED TO DEMONSTRATE VALUE OF THE SOLUTION: Three years ago, customers would have had a glazed look in their eyes when talking about storage virtualization. It's a similar situation today with thin provisioning. Today it's a high-level discussion. There's a real value to thin provisioning. You just have to articulate it.