Storage virtualization is often used in SAN (storage area network), a high-speed sub-network of shared storage devices, and makes tasks such as archiving, back-up, and recovery easier and faster and has tremendous potential for simplifying storage administration and reducing costs for managing diverse storage assets. According to IDC, virtualization includes the capability of connecting servers to logical volumes that are flexibly connected to actual physical volumes. Virtualization helps reallocate a heterogeneous collection of storage resources without concern for low-level details like block size and automate storage management functions. On the one hand, it is designed to make many storage systems look like one, in order to simplify the management of storage and data resources in the face of accelerating storage demand and functional complexity. On the other, some applications of storage virtualisation provide partitioning so that one storage system can appear as many, in order to provide quality of service and security for applications that need to be kept separate.

According to IDC, storage virtualisation in all its forms is emerging as a critical enterprise priority, with a recent survey finding that 49 per cent of organisations are currently evaluating storage virtualisation solutions with 34 per cent having already deployed it.

Business Challenges
Organisations right around the world are facing a data crisis. Data volumes are spiraling out of control across every enterprise as the amount of information and content we create grows exponentially. We are ever-increasingly dependent on information technology in virtually every facet of our life and this is creating a tidal wave of information that somehow must be stored and managed properly.

Today, data storage within most organisations is increasing by about 60 cent each year, with many experiencing growth in excess of 100 per cent. In addition to traditional data-intensive functions such as relationship databases, online transactions and business applications, IT managers have to cope with a massive influx of data from sources such as video, audio and other types of multimedia content, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other wireless data capture technologies and data stored for compliance purposes such as phone calls or transaction logs.

Traditionally, many organisations have tried to deal with growing data volumes by buying more disks. This seems like the simplest of all solutions – when you reach capacity, just buy some more disks. Commodity storage is continually getting cheaper and it is by far the easiest and quickest solution for the enterprise to adopt amidst increasing storage demand.

However, the increasing challenge for organisations is huge and unmanageable storage infrastructure. This challenge is combined with very low utilisation of these systems, often running at only 25-30%. In some cases, storage growth is outstripping data growth by a large degree, which means that organisations are increasing their capital and operational expenditure in areas such as IT staff, data centre management and even storage infrastructure space.