Storage has always been an important part of virtualized environments ever since the day VMware first introduced VMotion. However, as data centers have become more virtualized and tied to the cloud, storage has become a critical component.

The importance of storage to virtualized environments and to the cloud has never been more clear than at VMworld, where vendors large and small are introducing new flash storage arrays, data protection software, intelligent management, tiering to the cloud and more.

If you thought the storage offerings from last year's VMworld was big, you will be amazed at what's happening in 2012.

Just turn the page to get started, don't forget to look for Part 2 of this wrap -- there was just too much excitement to put in one slide show.