What is Data Storage Virtualization?

A data storage space virtualization answer lets you decrease the number of physical hardware resources needed to support applications. It does this by abstracting underlying disk and drive components and aggregating all their capacity as a single pool area of storage area available to applications for use. This pool of storage can now be managed by a central console to deliver operational and financial benefits just like faster resource provisioning and disaster recovery functions.

The key to storage virtualization is application that intercepts input/output (I/O) requests by physical and virtual hosts and paths them to the suitable physical position on a distributed pool of storage. Towards the application, the virtual storage appears being a single, contiguous hard drive or rational unit quantity (LUN) to accept normal read and write procedures.

While basic storage devices, such as solitary hard disk drives and basic storage arrays, will not provide any sort of virtualization, advanced disk arrays offer a reasonable to physical abstraction through RAID schemes and http://www.virtualdataspace.biz/what-is-a-bolt-on-acquisition/ a host-based volume supervisor. This type of virtualization enables features like pictures, cloning and replication being supported throughout different distributors.

Network-based storage space virtualization is the most prevalent form of the technology. Through this approach, a purpose-built gadget connects to all or any the storage space hardware within an FC or perhaps iSCSI storage area network (SAN) and signifies them as being a single pool of storage space. Towards the operating system or perhaps application, the resulting online disks or LUNs look as though that they reside about the same physical disc and have complete functionality, which includes multi-pathing software program.