Storage virtualization, as the name signifies, is a technology that pools physical storage solutions from multiple devices in to what appears to be an individual pool of accessible storage capacity. This kind of capacity can now be presented to servers, VMs and bare metal servers in a virtual environment for the reason that logical storage space.
The technology relies on software to identify and aggregate physical memory space from hard disk drive, optical, tape, solid-state and also other storage products into a distributed pool of logical ability that can be mastered by a central console. More storage components can be added simply because needed and joined for the pool, therefore expanding its overall capacity.
Block-level virtualization (block aggregation) is a common form of safe-keeping virtualization that presents many physical hard disk drives to an app as one rational device. This type of virtualization often helps performance by abstracting the logical drive from the actual storage.
Network-based storage virtualization is also a trendy form of virtualization. It links to storage space devices on a Fibre Funnel (FC) or Internet Little Computer System Program (iSCSI) SAN and presents them as a pool of safe-keeping that is available to all members belonging to the SAN.
Info replication is another common make use of for storage space virtualization. It provides a common place to replicate data across different systems against failures and to facilitate data migration.
Virtualization also offers ways to extend the life span of aged storage systems by adding all of them as a rate of storage to the virtualized pool. This can reduce administration costs and free acquisition strategy to use based on the business needs up space on the storage system that is not currently being used.