Storage Virtualization: Technologies for Simplifying Data Storage and Management

"Tom Clark gives us a clear, readable guide to this emerging technology. He explains how it works, what problems it solves, and where it fits in an evolving IT infrastructure."

—Milan Merhar

"Tom Clark gives us a strong overview of contemporary storage technology with storage virtualization as the central theme—a valuable work for all those seeking a broad understanding of storage in an IT infrastructure."

—David Thiel, HP Fellow and Chair of the SNIA Technical Council

"Storage virtualization technology holds immense promise for streamlining data storage operations and making the unmanageable manageable. In this work, Tom Clark provides a comprehensive overview of virtualization concepts and the practical benefits customers can realize. Storage Virtualization is recommended reading for anyone wanting to understand this next wave of innovative networked storage technology."

—John Webster, Founder and Senior Analyst, Data Mobility Group
Evaluating, Planning, and Implementing High-Value Storage Virtualization Solutions

Storage virtualization has come of age, offering IT professionals powerful new ways to simplify infrastructure, streamline management, improve utilization, and reduce costs. Now, the author of the best-selling storage books IP SANs and Designing Storage Area Networks presents an up-to-the-minute, vendor-neutral overview of storage virtualization in all its forms.

Writing for IT managers, administrators, architects, analysts, consultants, and vendors, Tom Clark explains everything from the basics to the latest emerging standards. Storage Virtualization uses realistic examples and diagrams to explain each key concept, concluding with case studies that demonstrate real-world implementation and help you assess the technology's business value. Coverage includes

• The current state of both storage virtualization technologies and the marketplace

• Relationships among files, records, data on disk, and storage interconnections

• Virtualization standards, including the Fabric Application Interface Standard

• How multiple storage systems are abstracted into virtual storage pools

• Host-based virtualization, array-based virtualization, and virtualization appliances

• Virtualization services for high availability and heterogeneous storage applications

• Virtualized SAN file systems that simplify file management and support distributed computing

• Virtualized tape backup, including Redundant Array of Independent Tape (RAIT) devices

• Policy-based storage management, application-sensitive virtualization intelligence, and other high-level automation and virtualization services

• The future of storage virtualization and storage utilities

• Extensive resource listings: vendors, industry organizations, and standards initiatives

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