I’ve always been a fan of minimalism and when I want to explain something to myself or to someone else, I would rather start from finding a single word or expression summarizing all the information related. If I had to use only one word to describe what are the benefits when transitioning from traditional to modernized storage with vSAN and vVols, I would certainly say “simplicity.”
If you are already hearing a little voice in your head saying – “Why simplicity?” Or “that’s just another vague word!”, suppress it for a minute. I’ve got some more words, some clear and structured words that hopefully will talk straight to that little voice.
Simplicity addresses a few characteristics: Ease of use, and a certain elegant plainness. Let’s take a look at how a modern storage infrastructure reflects these traits.
The quality to be easy to understand or do
I’m almost certain you can’t remember the last time you felt excited from the fact that some work-related process is going to take a long time to be executed. Most probably, because you never felt this way. Time is a valuable asset, and VMware’s modernized storage architecture and storage policies enable you to reduce the effort you’re investing in some arduous and challenging manual processes related to deploying, provisioning, and configuring traditional storage. The storage policy-based management framework, (SPBM) empowers administrators to seamlessly overcome most provisioning challenges. A storage policy contains one or more rules that can define service levels, performance, compression, deduplication, or even replication.
VI (virtual infrastructure) admins can easily respond to changing application requirements by simply changing software policies rather than reconfiguring hardware or migrating data. VMware’s modernized storage makes VI admins less dependent on the other siloes in the company, and saves them time by avoiding time-consuming communication, thus making them more effective by allowing them to concentrate on other crucial storage operations. For example, instead of having to set up a new LUN each time an application capability changes, modernized infrastructure allows them to simply change or reassign the policy related to the application. SPBM reverses the subordination between hardware capabilities and application requirements. This way storage services can be delivered based on application requirements alleviating hardware limitations. SPBM not only breaks the hardware dependency but it allows policies to be applied on a per disk, per VM or even on a per multi-VM level, making storage management more precise. Easy, isn’t it?
The quality of being plain, without unnecessary or extra things or decorations
Visibility and transparency are two additional benefits that come from using modernized storage platforms by VMware. With vSAN and vVols, the storage arrays become aware of what kind of data is stored and how it should be managed. This is not possible with traditional storage where data is seen only as I/O. This VM-awareness gives the administrator an easy way, for example, to assign more performant disk space to crucial applications without manipulating hardware. Another operational improvement offered by these modern storage architectures, is the ability to change storage capabilities without the need to physically migrate the VMs to another storage datastore. A simple modification or reassignment of a storage policy will be sufficient for the VM to acquire new capabilities. The outcome of these enhancements is overprovisioning prevention and a lower number of I/O workloads. When data services can be delivered with such a fine level of control the need to pre-provision an absurd amount of storage is driven down. Improving control and visibility reduces the need for scaling en masse.
At the end of the day, we all know how important it is to measure and monitor the performance of your storage datastore. Based on that valuable information, businesses can make informed decisions for their future development. Decisions, like how much storage capacity and performance your business will need tomorrow are crucial. They should be made based on trustful metrics and data. Managing and measuring storage performance is always easier when you have a single management interface like the vSphere client, where you can seamlessly navigate and gather the valuable information you need. See? Plain and unencumbered.
A great number of companies around the world have already tasted the ease and freedom that VMware’s Hyperconverged infrastructure and modernized storage architecture can provide. What better way to prove our words than hear their stories? Read about Grünenfelder SA (Logistics company, located in Southern Switzerland) and Cubic (Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security, and commercial missions), and their honest feedback about our products.
Summary
The simplicity of transitioning to a modernized storage architecture with VMware comes from the intuitive way of organizing and managing an otherwise complex, responsible, and wide matter. vVols and vSAN reduce the number of routine operations, save time, optimize management, and improve performance. Four factors that can make your business more efficient.
