Inevitable Virtualization
Storage virtualization is not the same as server virtualization, but they share some common goals. Business wants to use the technology to drive cost out of infrastructure and to use what they have more efficiently.
The simple fact is that both servers and storage used commodity components that should be falling in cost year over year. In the storage world, this is prevented from happening by the prediliction of array vendors to "add value" in the form of proprietary software joined to proprietary array controllers. This model causes storage costs to accelerate despite the fact that the underlying commodity disk drives decrease in cost by 50% per year on a per GB basis.
Ziya Aral, Chairman, Chief Technology Officer, and Co-Founder of Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based DataCore Software, argues that storage virtualization - essentially moving value-add functionality away from controllers and into a software abstraction layer - is inevitable both for reasons of engineering and economics.
In this interview, originally recorded as part of the C-4 Summit in Cyberspace, Aral gave us his views of the evolution of virtualization technology, providing a unique historical perspective as one of the first inventors of a viable storage virtualization technology. He surveys the challenges of commoditization and management from the standpoint of both engineers tasked with developing profitable technology products and business IT professionals who must harness technology to business needs while paying close attention to their budgets. The interview is fascinating and well worth the time to watch.
