Virtualization Picks Up Steam

Tying together disparate disk systems in the data center is now taking on a new sense of urgency with the meteoric growth of server virtualization.

End users looking to achieve the true benefits of virtualization--the pooling of computing resources--are best served by holistically looking at both storage and servers. In turn, solution providers need to think in the same manner by developing the technical expertise and partnerships necessary to provide true system virtualization.

The imperatives to reduce costs and improve utilization and availability are driving the rapid proliferation of system-virtualization platforms from Microsoft, Virtual Iron, VMware and XenSource.

Slide Show: Vexed By Virtualization? How To Choose The Right Product

Solution providers riding the wave of data-center consolidation should be looking at the storage-virtualization software options. Those who specialize in storage can grow their businesses by jumping onto the virtualization bandwagon.

Storage virtualization started to evolve well before server virtualization took off. There are numerous options for storage virtualization. The latest buzz these days is software that runs within the SAN switch. Other options include virtualization software that runs within the storage array, file virtualization and the use of specialty appliances. The latter approach, also known as in-band or shared-data-path storage virtualization, is the most widely adopted, mostly because it doesn't require server modifications.

DataCore and FalconStor are among those that offer in-band virtualization software. IBM also espouses in-band virtualization with its SAN Volume Controller (SVC).

In-band virtualization is old hat for quite a few storage specialists such as John Thome, a vice president at Cleveland-based solution provider Chi Corp. Storage virtualization never had the enterprise appeal system virtualization does. Demand for storage virtualization is a sheer necessity as a result of these rapidly growing server-consolidation efforts, Thome says.

"We're running into VMware everywhere, and as these people are looking into server virtualization, they are looking at better ways of allocating storage resources," says Thome, a longtime partner of FalconStor, whose IPStor allows customers to virtualize their storage systems.

Using the Java management console of IPStor, customers can view all storage resources as though they were one large SAN. IPStor lets customers provision software on an application server, such as a database or e-mail system. An end user can also make a disk array available to that application for a prescribed period and later add more capacity from another vendor's storage platform without having to touch the app, says Donald Mead, vice president of FalconStor's network-storage solutions.

NEXT: If virtualization platforms can consolidate servers and the networks and storage attached to them, why the plethora of storage-virtualization tools?