Seagate ST3300657SS Storage Strategies for Server Virtualization - Page 1

Technology Paper Storage Strategies for Server Virtualization Getting the Most From Virtualized Environments Without Breaking Your IT Budget Introduction Server virtualization delivers IT benefits that are every CIO's dream: greatly simplified management, better business responsiveness, higher application availability, reduced hardware and software costs, lower power consumption, and a cooler data center. Is this technology too good to be true? Some say there is a downside: an acceleration in data growth and thus storage costs. Deploying a new server is now "free," removing one of the factors providing at least a little drag to rampant application growth rates. Without the server deployment speed bump, data and the storage needed to keep it can grow even faster. Without adjustment for this new reality, storage infrastructures and their associated costs can become a problem. The good news: storage architectures can be configured to support a virtualized server environment without breaking the IT budget. Risky investments in unproven technologies are not required. Thoughtful application of the storage tools available within today's leading storage systems is enough to deliver scalable and efficient virtual server storage. Best-in-class storage deployment can result in lower storage costs than the pre-virtual data center environment, despite virtualization-driven data growth. How to Make Storage Work for Virtual Servers Rule 1: Get out of the way. Before virtualization, storage was not the primary bottleneck for business applications. Storage allocation efficiency matched or exceeded server deployment efficiency. Virtualization has moved servers out of the critical path for application deployment. Successful storage for a virtualized environment must at all costs keep up with server deployment.