Virtual data storage is becoming an increasingly popular option for businesses looking to cut down on IT expenses. These solutions can save considerable amount of money because they don’t need the hardware redundancy that is typically required in traditional enterprise storage systems to ensure disaster recovery.
Virtual data storage permits IT to pool physical storage devices like SANs into what appears as an individual device or virtual storage array. There are several ways to use the technology, including host-based virtualization and network-based storage (which connects storage devices from an FC or iSCSI the SAN into a single pool addressed by a central management console). Host-based virtualization is typically found in HCI systems and cloud storage.
Virtual storage needs to be compatible not just with the hardware infrastructure, but also with hypervisors, servers and networking components. It should also be able to enable data encryption, granular authentication and access controls as well as robust backup and disaster recover capabilities.
Virtual storage should also be able address issues with latency and performance. This means that critical applications can run without compromising the performance or causing delays to data retrieval. This involves evaluating storage controllers, network bandwidth, and disk I/O capacities as well as the deployment of cache mechanisms. This also includes the implementation of advanced storage functions, such as tiering and replicating at the virtualization level.
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