How Virtual Data Storage Can Lower IT Costs

The rise of hyperconvergence and software-defined storage technologies makes virtual data storage an attractive option for enterprises looking to reduce their IT costs. These solutions can save significant amount of money as they don’t require redundancy of hardware that’s typically required in traditional storage architectures for enterprises to ensure disaster recovery.

Virtual data storage allows IT to pool physical data storage devices such as SANs into one device or virtual storage array. There are many ways to use this technology board room software using network-based storage (which blends all of the storage devices in an FC or iSCSI SAN into a single pool that is addressed via a central management console) and host-based virtualization. Host-based Virtualization is commonly used in HCI Systems and Cloud Storage.

In order to work the way it should, virtual storage must be compatible with the hardware infrastructure such as networking components and servers, as well as with standard management tools and hypervisors. It should also be able to provide encryption of data, granular authentication and access controls and robust backup and disaster recovery capabilities.

Virtual storage must also be able address concerns regarding latency and performance. This includes ensuring that critical applications can run without impairing performance or adding to the time required to retrieve data. This means assessing storage controller capabilities, network bandwidth, and capacity of the disk I/O, as well as implementing caching mechanisms. It also means installing advanced storage functions such as tiering and replication at the virtualization level.