Optimize Server Virtualization for the Enterprise

Like iPOD for the consumer market, server virtualization is one of the hottest technology trends to sweep the commercial market. Many enterprises are deploying or investigating server virtualization to save power, cooling and management costs, improve asset utilization, and increase flexibility. However, server virtualization by itself is only the tip of the iceberg. To realize the full benefits from a virtual infrastructure, companies must also implement the other critical component to the total solution: storage virtualization.

Storage virtualization extends the benefits of server virtualization by providing simplified storage management, improved storage utilization, and better application performance. Moving from direct-attached silo storage to a SAN where storage can be shared in a virtual pool also provides significant power, cooling, and IT management cost savings.

Server and storage virtualization work together to deliver maximum ROI. For example, dynamic virtual machine failover, a key benefit of server virtualization software, can facilitate disaster recovery. It is incomplete, however, without dynamic storage failover, a storage virtualization feature. Ensuring high availability at the server application level solves only half the problem. If the data in the storage environment is not equally protected in an integrated virtualization solution, the servers may recover, but will not have access to the data they need.

When implementing a virtualization project, companies should also factor in other important criteria before choosing their final solution. For example, it may be critical to leverage previous storage investments in the new SAN. However, utilizing existing storage hardware can be difficult because storage systems from different vendors are proprietary and incompatible. Storage virtualization can also trigger the need for data migration, as companies consolidate and upgrade technology. Traditionally migrating data from legacy physical servers to a virtual storage environment has been a complex, disruptive task --- often requiring applications to be taken offline.

Putting more logical servers and applications onto a single physical server also increases business risk if a failure occurs. Hence, disaster recovery is another key success factor with virtualization deployments. Disaster recovery can also be implemented in pragmatic phases, such as starting first with cross-campus replication, then later including remote branch offices.

Storage virtualization solutions range from storage-centric offerings, such as networked storage vendors’ iSCSI or FC arrays, to intelligent switches with integrated storage management and virtualization software.

SANRAD’s intelligent network switches with built-in storage services provide open, heterogeneous storage virtualization. Open storage virtualization provides IT managers with the flexibility to utilize any storage to meet the varying cost, performance and reliability requirements across the enterprise. Companies can leverage their existing storage or mix storage from different vendors to create and easily manage virtual storage pools.

Because SANRAD’s intelligent switches are storage-independent, enterprises can easily migrate or replicate data from one storage system to any other storage system while applications are running---there’s no need to schedule downtime and thus no disruption to the business. A single license covers all storage solutions and eliminates the need to purchase expensive software and hardware often required by other vendors. This is significant because many companies, though interested in data migration and disaster recovery, get sticker shock when they see the costs associated with traditional market offerings. With SANRAD, however, companies now have an affordable, enterprise-class alternative to meet their critical needs.

For disaster recovery, SANRAD provides a comprehensive solution for LAN, MAN, or WAN to address data center, local site, cross-campus and remote site needs. With active/active clustering, automatic failover, synchronous and asynchronous replication, SANRAD V-Switches provide high availability to meet the stringent demands of even the largest enterprises.

The bottom line is that virtualization can enable tremendous benefits for companies of all sizes. Server and storage virtualization complement each other to optimize financial and business benefits. Successful project planning should also factor in data migration and disaster recovery as key elements of the total solution.