The rise of software-defined storage and hyperconvergence technologies makes virtual data storage an attractive option for businesses looking to cut costs in IT. These solutions can save amount of money since they don’t require the hardware redundancy that is typically required in traditional enterprise storage systems to ensure disaster recovery.
Virtual data storage allows IT departments to pool physical storage devices, such as SANs that appear to be an individual device or storage array. There are several methods to implement this technology, including network-based storage virtualization (which brings together all of the storage devices in an FC or iSCSI storage area into a single pool, which is managed by a central management console) and host-based virtualization. Host-based virtualization is often used in HCI Systems and Cloud Storage.
To function the way it should, virtual storage must be compatible with underlying hardware infrastructure including networking components, servers and other servers, as well as with the most common management tools and hypervisors. It should also be able to support data encrypting as well as granular authentication, access controls as well as robust backup and disaster recover capabilities.
Additionally, virtual storage needs to be able to tackle issues of latency and performance. This means that critical applications can be run without compromising performance or causing delays to data retrieval. This requires evaluating storage controllers, bandwidth for networks and the capacity of disk I/O as well as the deployment of board room software cache mechanisms. It also involves the implementation of advanced storage functions, like tiering and replication at the virtualization level.