Storage Virtualization Edges On

This week has seen a flurry of virtualization announcements, with Xen adding iSCSI support to its XenEnterprise offering, and Sanbolic and Tout Virtual bolstering their Microsoft Virtual server stories. (See XenSource Reveals Upgrade, Sanbolic Simplifies Virtual Server, and ToutVirtual Offered With Microsoft.)

These announcements indicate there is much more hype surrounding server (as opposed to storage) virtualization. (See Why Storage Is Boring.) The market for products from vendors such as VMware, Virtual Iron, and Xen appears to have quickly matured over the last couple of years. (See Vendors Push Virtual Security, Virtual Iron Dangles iSCSI Savings, Virtual Iron Inks iSCSI Deal, and XenSource Unveils 3.2.)

Compare this against the storage virtualization market, where Cisco recently revealed plans to "end of life" the file virtualization products from its NeoPath acquisition, leaving users wondering what their next step is. (See Cisco Completes Acquisition and Acopia Plans NeoPath Buyback.)

Storage virtualization is still very much in its infancy, according to NeoPath customer Jim Poehlman, chief information technologist of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturing firm Ubicom. "I am seeing things right now at the very beginning -- I am going to wait and see what Cisco does," he says.

Despite this week's news, the exec told Byte and Switch that he is still optimistic about the future of storage virtualization: "Cisco buying NeoPath says to me that they believe in [the technology]."For Poehlman, the lack of information coming out of Cisco about its NeoPath IP is a good sign. "I think that they would only [do this] if they were bringing something out that will be competitive," explains the exec, adding that NeoPath's technology could be integrated into Cisco's existing storage offerings or boiled down into a module for the Catalyst 6500 switch.

Last year analyst firm IDC revealed that 49 percent of firms are currently evaluating storage virtualization, with the technology already deployed by more than a third of users. "It's still in its early stages, although we're seeing some good growth and traction from some of the vendors that have products in this space," says IDC analyst Laura DuBois.

Presently, there are two types of storage virtualization available. The first group consists of "block-based" virtualization products -- offerings which virtualize chunks of data such as IBM's San Volume Controller (SVC), the Incipient Network Storage Platform software suite (iNSP), TagmaStore from HDS, and EMC's Invista. (See How to Shop for a SAN, IBM Upgrades SVC, HDS: Users Pick TagmaStore, and Mark Lewis, CDO, EMC.)

The other category consists of "file-based" products, such as those offered by NeoPath, Acopia, Attune, and NetApp's Ontap GX product. (See NeoPath Closes $11M Round, Acopia Offers NeoPath Buyback, NetApp Ships Data Ontap GX, and NetApp Stokes Competitive Fires.) These technologies sub-divide again into network-based products that run on a switch, such as Acopia's, and offerings such as Ontap GX, which run on the storage itself.

Until now, it is the block-based technologies that have enjoyed most customer take-up, led by IBM's SVC, according to DuBois, who explains that this will soon change. "There's a real opportunity for file-based virtualization to take off and quickly get to where block-based virtualization is," she says. "Companies are looking for a way to share files globally without having to worry about the location of the files."Not all users share this degree of interest in storage virtualization. "We haven't even discussed storage virtualization," explains Martin Dalton, AIX administrator of Dallas-based lumber firm Foxworth-Galbraith, adding that his company has only been using server virtualization for the last two years.

These sentiments were echoed by Mario Rodriguez, IT manager of the Piscataway, New Jersey-based Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. "At this point, we don't have a need for a virtual storage environment -- the storage that we have now is not filled up yet," he says.

Despite a somewhat mixed response from users, vendors appear to be cranking up their storage virtualization strategies. LSI CEO Abhi Talwalkar this week revealed plans for storage virtualization features based on the vendor's acquisition of StorAge. (See LSI Lassos SiliconStor and LSI Annexes StoreAge.)

Other firms getting involved in this space include Emulex, which recently unveiled its 765 hardware aimed at storage virtualization. (See Emulex Unveils Platform.)

For Ubicom's Poehlman, the fact that users are increasingly familiar with server virtualization will help drive the technology into the storage arena. "It's something that people have acknowledged as providing cost savings and flexibility," he says.James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch