David Merrill of Hitachi Data Systems wishes there was a power company rebate for storage virtualization as well as for server consolidation. Link: David Merrill’s Blog » Blog Archive » A Power Company’s Reward.
Storage consolidation can save in total electric costs. Storage virtualization cannot always make that same claim. This can be attributed to virtualization encouraging the extended use of older arrays within the storage pool. Extending the useful life of IT assets is usually a good idea, but can offset plans to reduce electricity. Older arrays consume more kWatts per TB than newer systms. Virtualization with newer arrays, and providing tiers of storage (out of the frame) has also demonstrated lower kVA, BTU and kWatt consumption.
