How Virtual Data Storage Can Lower IT Costs
The rise of software-defined storage and hyperconvergence technologies makes virtual data storage a viable solution for companies seeking to reduce their IT costs. In fact, since these solutions don’t require hardware redundancies typically needed in traditional enterprise storage systems for disaster recovery, they’re able to cut down on upfront costs as well as operating expenses over time by significantly.
Virtual data storage permits IT to pool physical data storage devices like SANs into what appears as one device or virtual storage array. There are several methods to implement this technology, including network-based storage virtualization (which brings together all of the storage devices of an FC or iSCSI storage area into a single pool, which is controlled by a central management console) and host-based virtualization. Host-based virtualization can be used in HCI systems as well as cloud storage.
To function with virtual storage, it has to be compatible with underlying hardware infrastructure, networking components and servers, as well as with common management tools and hypervisors. It should also enable data encryption, granular authentication and access controls as well as robust backup and disaster recover capabilities.
Additionally, the storage system must be able to tackle performance and latency concerns. This means that crucial applications are able to run without impairing performance or adding to the latency of data retrieval. This means evaluating storage controller capabilities, network bandwidth, and capacity of the disk I/O, as well as deploying caching mechanisms. It also involves implementing advanced storage features like replication, tiering and virtualization check over here at the virtualization layer.
