Storage Virtualization

Storage virtualization optimizes storage resource utilization through greater consolidation and intelligent provisioning. At the same time, it simplifies storage management by masking the complexity of diverse physical topologies. With storage virtualization, your storage administrators can:

• Provision the class of storage that meets the needs of enterprise applications
• Improve business continuity and disaster recovery with services such as remote replication and snapshot copies
• Pool tiered heterogeneous storage to:
  • Increased storage utilization
  • Centralize storage management
  • Migrate data without disruption
  • Reduce total cost of storage ownership

Advantages of Modular Architecture

Cisco MDS 9000 products provide the functions and modularity necessary to implement networked storage virtualization within the switch. Cisco has worked with industry leaders to combine the Cisco MDS 9000 32-Port Fibre Channel Storage Services Module (SSM) with virtualization software to form an integrated solution that reduces the complexity and costs of managing storage area network (SAN) storage. 

The modular architecture of the MDS 9000 Series products allows customers to add virtualization processing power over time, as demand for virtualization services grows. The distributed and redundant architecture featured in Cisco virtualization solutions allows limitless expansion, while maintaining high performance. This is achieved by separating the control path and data path of the I/O and distributing I/O mapping functions across all processors. The virtualization runs on the MDS platform, which provides scalability, stability, and security.

Webcasts
   Cisco and EMC: Network-based Virtualization for Intelligent Fabric Applications