Virtualizing NAS: Key criteria for network file virtualization

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May 12, 2005 (Computerworld) -- Virtualization isn't a new concept, but now that organizations need to cope with fast-growing storage requirements and enable their administrators to manage more storage, the topic is hotter than ever.
According to TheInfoPro's Technology Heat Index, a ranking of technologies that most interest storage decision-makers in the Fortune 1000, virtualization is a hot technology, with a score of 75 out of 100 on the heat index. Ken Male, CEO of the independent market research firm, attests, "Less than 20% of the Fortune 1,000 firms that we interviewed are using virtualization today, but this is projected to more than double in 2005 and more than triple by the end of 2006. This makes virtualization a strong growth market."
TheInfoPro also noted that many of the IT professionals surveyed said that network-attached storage (NAS) is a logical place to begin virtualization deployments. The growth in file-based data, coupled with the movement to different tiers, has created management, mobility and utilization challenges for IT professionals. NAS virtualization, and network file virtualization (NFV) in particular, can help simplify storage management and enable administrators to address management and utilization challenges without having an impact on data access.
NFV lets end-users retain full read/write access to data as it's being dynamically relocated within networked storage. With this technology, storage administrators need not be concerned about the effects on end-user data access. They can keep data always accessible and online. This eliminates a major constraint on the storage administration process, dramatically changing unstructured data management and enabling administrators to increase capacity utilization, improve performance, leverage tiered storage and ease consolidations all while end users continue to access and update the data.
Not all NFV products are equal, however. To successfully adopt this technology in your environment, you need to ask the right questions. There are three key questions to consider:

1. What problem does it solve?


2. Does it create new problems?


3. How does it leverage my existing environment?

To answer the first question, you need to look closely at what is actually being virtualized. Is it only the location/namespace, or does it include active files? The ability to perform active data management drives many benefits. Performance management applications require a product that virtualizes active content and can dynamically relocate open files across devices to relieve hot spots.
Similarly, managing tiered storage requires a solution that goes beyond moving dead data. Simply identifying content that hasn't been accessed in a period of time and moving this infrequently accessed data is a small part of tiered storage management. Actively matching content with the appropriate underlying storage device requires the real-time relocation of content and active data management.
Does the solution create new problems?

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