How long is the road to the hottest enterprise sto

How long is the road to enterprise storage virtualization

today, storage virtualization has developed into an important feature of storage infrastructure management tools, which greatly reduces the complexity of storage management and improves the efficiency and utilization of storage

how much did enterprises and industry users know about storage virtualization technology, products and solutions in 2006? How much attention? What is the current application status? With these questions in mind, this journal has conducted a small survey and interview on industries and enterprises, and hopes to guide users to pay attention to storage virtualization

who is paying attention

this survey adopts the stratified random sampling method to determine the survey samples, which are divided into five industry levels: government, finance, energy, manufacturing and education. The principle of random sampling is followed at these five levels to ensure the representativeness of the samples and the predictability of the analysis results. A total of 30 samples were taken, including 10 valid samples

the respondents are CIOs of various industries and enterprises. The enterprises involved are the state power information center, Beijing Dongcheng District State Taxation Bureau, Beijing Xicheng District Health Bureau, Beijing Chaoyang District government, the Foreign Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, China Huaneng Group Corporation, China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute, Beijing Futian Automobile Co., Ltd., Beijing Xuelian cashmere Co., Ltd., and Beijing Electromechanical Equipment Corporation

the survey questions are divided into three levels. First, understand the users' attention to virtual storage, then find out the users' needs for storage virtualization technology and applications, and finally understand the current situation of users' virtual storage applications

trend: network virtual storage

Xu Lu, director of the engineering center of the National Institute of high performance computers, believes that in terms of the specific implementation methods of host based, storage device based and network-based virtual storage, the virtualization implementation technology has nothing to do with the topology of network storage, such as the common pooling technology LVM and the commonly used RAID technology (divided into software implementation and hardware implementation), which are all based on volumes, The specific network communication protocols (iSCSI, SRP, FCP, etc.) realize the remote access of local volumes

many industry experts believe that the three virtualization storage methods based on host, network and storage system are developing continuously, but from the development trend of storage, network-based virtualization is the trend of development

for the concept of virtual storage, 9 enterprise survey representatives expressed understanding and concern, indicating that virtual storage has been recognized by users. When asked what kind of virtual storage they care about, seven enterprise respondents answered that network-based virtual storage

network virtualization storage architecture diagram

attention: solve the application needs of enterprises

among the most concerned problems about virtual storage, the respondents of five enterprises expressed their concern about whether the enterprise's own IT infrastructure is suitable for realizing storage virtualization, and four enterprise respondents were concerned about how to use virtual storage solutions through the internal partitions of storage software and storage hardware, To maximize the use of their own storage infrastructure, only one enterprise was visited, and those who have the characteristics of wide measurement range, high precision, fast response, etc. chose how to realize virtual storage

this shows that when many users think about virtual storage, they first think about the change and adaptation of their IT infrastructure, and most of them have not developed to how to implement this step

what is the most wanted information about storage virtualization for enterprise applications

7 enterprise respondents not only chose what virtual storage can do for enterprises, but also put it in the first place they want to know most. At the same time, seven enterprise respondents also chose what changes the IT infrastructure needs to make if they are going to implement virtual storage

another five respondents most want to know how to improve management and reduce it costs through virtual storage. Explain that users first consider the practicality of virtual storage, and then what changes need to be made to the IT infrastructure to implement virtual storage

this shows that most users only understand the concept of virtual storage, but they still don't know what benefits virtual storage can bring to enterprises, and they are eager to know this information

when asked whether there is a demand for virtual storage applications at present, five respondents said they have a long-term plan, two respondents said they have no plan, two respondents said they have a plan in the near future, and one respondent's unit has applied virtual storage

two of the respondents who answered that they had long-term plans said that the current storage devices could still meet the current needs, but they were still very interested. This shows that it will take some time for virtual storage to be widely used, but it can be seen that it has been accepted by users

implementation: cost performance is critical

what factors do you attach most importance to when purchasing virtual storage products/solutions? Six respondents chose cost performance, six respondents chose service, six respondents chose product/solution performance, and four respondents chose to match the needs of enterprises and pay attention to the degree of exhibition officials. This shows that cost performance is still a decisive factor affecting procurement for most users

Xu Lu believes that when choosing a virtual storage solution that is suitable for enterprises to identify that sometimes speed is more important than quality, it should be clear that any storage solution is ultimately for enterprise applications, so the specific needs of enterprise applications are the foothold and ultimate destination of the solution

at present, the state power company has built a storage backup system, and some provincial power companies have also built data redundancy backup centers. However, with the continuous improvement of information security standards, all industries need to build a larger redundant disaster backup emergency system and a larger capacity of information storage capacity

security issues have led to high requirements for storage capacity, and the security after the implementation of virtual storage is also a concern of the respondents

security is the key. Users generally pay attention to how to ensure the security after implementing virtual storage, how to prevent being locked up by a manufacturer, and how to recover the original data after disconnection

Xu Lu believes that: firstly, virtual storage itself does not cause the reduction of data security, but on the contrary, some implementation technologies of virtualization, such as RAID technology, are just to effectively improve the security of data. No matter what kind of storage mode (decentralized or centralized), we can effectively and warmly celebrate the successful installation and commissioning of our universal experimental machine in Changsha customer factory today. The timely data backup scheme is a practical and feasible means to improve data security

it should be noted that the storage purchased in different periods may have some problems in the compatibility of storage management. For the purpose of protecting existing investments, the compatibility of storage management is the primary consideration

it can be seen from the survey that users pay high attention to storage virtualization, and the application value of virtual storage for each enterprise is the focus of attention

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