By George Crump, check out the full article at: www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/01/virtualization_10.html
As server virtualization begins to work its way down the data center food chain, it is making small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) change their plans for storage selection…
…First, shared storage is a must to get important capabilities like virtual server migration. Second, storage I/O performance quickly becomes a consideration for even the smallest enterprises and all of this I/O is totally random, it is hard to predict what server is going to make which I/O request and when. This results in the need for good overall random I/O performance out of your storage platform. Finally/ the storage must be highly available — all your eggs are in one basket, so to speak; a failure in storage now affects many virtual servers, so downtime isn’t an option.
…DataCore, for example, has recently announced new pricing on a full-featured Highly Available SAN solution at prices starting at about $10,000.
When looking for SME storage to complement your virtual server rollout strategy look for a solution that can:
Upgrade as your business grows
Deliver excellent random I/O performance
Deliver rock-solid SAN data protection
And, of course, is priced right to meet the realities of your budget
Shared Storage that allows the SME to take full advantage of its server virtualization investment is now readily available. By implementing shared storage, the SME can leverage virtualization to further reduce server costs and even storage costs in its environment. There has never been a better time for SME’s to implement a shared storage solution.
