By Edgardo Lopez, Product Marketing Manager
Recently, I talked about how the HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform (SVSP) network-based storage virtualization solution forms a solid foundation for an adaptive storage infrastructure that can significantly boost storage asset utilization while simplifying operations and improving efficiency.
It has been true for many years, that the best way to drive cost out of any infrastructure solution is by implementing common methodologies, tools, standards and techniques. An SVSP based storage infrastructure offers such a common set of tools and methodologies that will enable organizations to address an important set of use cases to streamline operations and improve productivity. They include:
Today, I'd like explore the "Storage Consolidation & Centralized Management" use case with the SVSP; review how it actually delivers value within the context of simplified storage management, and discover how to evaluate this Use Case, economically.
Many customers today have storage arrays from different vendors or at least different generations of arrays, and models from the same vendor. Except in very rare instances, the customer is forced to recall the capabilities of each type of storage and use a different set of management tools from each vendor, including data services options, in order to manage each array separately. As the number of servers (virtual and physical) and storage devices grows, hundreds or thousands of volumes must be individually monitored and managed by storage administrators--a daunting task to say the least. Complexity, cost and capacity utilization rates are all negatively impacted in these traditional deployments, particularly when server virtualization is introduced.
A better approach is to use the SVSP platform to develop a consolidated storage infrastructure (see figure 1) that drives better economics. The SVSP:
Consolidation and management of multiple arrays from various vendors is significantly simplified using the SVSP. According to IDC (See Footnote #1), solutions like the SVSP can increase storage utilization by as much as 300% when compared to typical SAN Deployments. It can also triple the amount of storage that a person can manage. Overall, an SVSP deployment as illustrated in figure #1, can have a significant customer impact in three areas: business, operational, and finacial impact. I've summarized these as follows:
Business impact:
Operational Impact:
Financial Impact:
For more details see: www.hp.com/go/svsp
Footnote #1: "The Business Value of Storage Virtualization: Scaling the Storage Solution; Leveraging the Storage Investments", IDC, Richard Villars & Randy Perry, Feb. 2009
