The Real Problem with Storage Virtualization

Right about now, far too many IT organizations are struggling with storage performance issues associated with virtual servers that could have been avoided with a little bit of planning.

But given the fact that many IT organizations continue to think of virtual machine software as a tactical tool for consolidating servers, too many IT organizations are now trying to figure out how to guarantee the I/O performance of multiple applications trying to share the same physical server and associated storage resources.

The core problem is that the I/O performance of multiple applications is not all that predictable. At some point, multiple applications are going to create storage I/O collisions that will degrade the performance of the applications.

A new study of 450 IT organizations in North America and Europe conducted by Datacore Software finds that the vast majority are not only experiencing I/O bottleneck issues, but the nature of on-demand applications that are enabled by virtualization requires more access to disk space than ever.

To address this issue, IT organizations can either invest in new storage systems that are optimized for virtual server environments, or they can add a layer of storage virtualization software across their existing storage resources.

Datacore CEO George Teixeira argues that the latter approach is not only more cost effective, it gives IT organizations maximum freedom in terms of selecting their storage hardware vendors.

In either case, the fundamental issue is that too many IT organizations are still a little naïve about managing servers and storage. It’s virtually impossible to change one without having a major impact on the other. And yet, far too many IT organizations continue to manage servers and storage in isolation, only to be surprised to discover how intimately connected the two really are.