Storage virtualization simplifies today's diverse and complex network storage infrastructures. The benefits of a virtualization implementation include:
Simplifies complex storage environments

• Hitachi Data Systems virtualization solutions consolidate many physical storage systems from different vendors into one virtual pool of storage, masking the complexity of the underlying physical structure.
• Uses a single, standard set of storage management tools to perform common functions across heterogeneous storage systems such as:
  • Non-disruptive data or volume migration from any-to-any storage system
  • Any-to-any snapshot, archive, backup, and replication, either locally or to remote sites.

Makes better use of other storage options, including lower-cost modular storage

• Enables customers to leverage the power of a single replication engine and a single management interface across all their storage assets, regardless of cost, type, or functionality.
• Analysts refer to virtualization as an "enabler"[1] and the "glue"[2] for tiered storage infrastructures. Virtualization allows data to be easily migrated between different price/performance storage 'tiers'.

Offers seamless, non-disruptive data migration from any-to-any heterogeneous storage

• Advanced virtualization technology offers standard, storage-based data migration functionality capable of rapidly migrating whole volumes of application or file data in the background, non-disruptively, from any-to-any heterogeneous storage system.

[1] "Storage functionality – the intelligent controller versus the network," – Ovum, 2006.
[2] "Intelligent Tiered Storage: Focus on HDS," - Enterprise Strategy Group, 2006.

Reduces CAPEX, total cost of ownership, and extends the life of legacy assets

Virtualization technology can lead to significant cost reductions, for example:

• Reduced need for redundant software applications and licenses. (Both high-performance and low-cost storage systems now 'inherit' the same virtualization functionality.)
• Fewer systems—requiring less floor space, less power and cooling.
  
• Reduced number and cost of future acquisitions (less overall storage system to manage).
  
• Reduced labor costs to manage, support or train IT staff on using virtualized systems.
  
• Allows legacy storage to go off-lease and fulfill asset depreciation schedules, yet still be utilized in the virtual pool. Data safeguards maintain virtual access to data in case of system failure.

Case Study–“Tiered Storage and Virtualization in the Real World”

Successfully meets predefined QoS (service level) parameters on a per application basis

• Hitachi virtualization technology enables IT organizations to benefit from consolidating various applications' data into the same virtual storage pool thereby extending high-performance, enterprise-class functionality to lower-cost systems.

Enables heterogeneous, any-to-any replication—using one set of tools and a common process

• Hitachi virtualization technology in the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform and Network Storage Controller makes the same high-performance data replication services available to each externally attached storage system.

Prompts significant increases in storage capacity utilization

• Hitachi virtualization technology consolidates isolated silos of stranded storage capacity into a logical pool of storage that can be easily re-provisioned and assigned on an as-needed basis to a variety of data needs, including primary application data storage, nearline backup or archival, development and testing projects, file shares.

Allows one administrator to manage from three to 10 times more storage capacity

• Hitachi virtualization technology leads to a simplified network storage environment and one common set of tools and processes for performing storage management.