Storage Virtualization:  Beyond the Bland Debate of Where to Virtualize

Eric Schott, Senior Director of Product Management, Dell

Much has been made of the benefit of SANs and virtualized storage for virtual server deployments, but a closer look at successful, flexible virtualized IT infrastructures reveals the need for a deeper discussion about what storage virtualization can actually deliver.  This session will attempt to go beyond the debate of where storage virtualization should take place – in the network, array or host – to begin a more meaningful discussion of what IT managers can actually do with storage virtualization, wherever it lives. Ultimately, virtualization is one of the keys for consolidation, simplification and flexibility in IT, and a more useful taxonomy and productive discussion is required to help IT decision makers tackle storage virtualization. 

As a result of participating in this session, attendees will be able to: 

• Evaluate the utility (or perhaps lack of utility) of storage virtualization for IT consolidation and server virtualization projects 
  
• Understand the levels of storage virtualization possible in networked storage and the impact those levels will have on storage management tasks and capabilities, IT complexity, storage economics and performance
  
• Weigh storage virtualization options by their various capabilities for what is most relevant to the attendees own IT environment