How difficult is it to remove or "back out" of storage virtualization?

How difficult is it to remove or "back out" of storage virtualization?

Storage virtualization is a very strategic decision for a company to make. Be conscious of what you're doing, because reversing virtualization is not easy. Once you go into a virtualized environment,

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchVirtualStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Every flavor of virtualization project – server, storage, desktop, file – offers challenges and rewards to the storage manager, and it’s our goal to ensure you’re up-to-date on the latest tips, trends and technologies that can help you overcome these roadblocks.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchVirtualStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchVirtualStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

the relationship between what is being presented as storage to the server and where that physical storage is coming from is completely abstracted -- an IT storage administrator won't know where storage is coming from. You will probably live with a vendor's storage virtualization product for years to come, so it is absolutely crucial to pick your vendor carefully.

You can back out of storage virtualization, but it's a painful project. You'll basically have to backup your data somewhere else, remove the virtualization layer, then bring the data back onto known physical storage devices. It's not a course to be undertaken lightly.

Check out the entire Storage Virtualization FAQ guide.


This was first published in August 2007