Making a Virtualized Storage System Into Storage for Virtual Platforms - One Company's Journey

A lot has happened to the EqualLogic platform since the team noticed that a great deal of storage was being sold to customers of a certain virtualization platform in 2005. In trying to exploit the natural affinity of easy-to-use centralized storage in the virtualization market, a series of initiatives were set in motion that have transformed the value of the platform, and also radically changed what it means to be a storage array in a world dominated by virtualized compute. Beginning with a requirement for shared storage in order to implement high-availability of compute loads, the virtualization platforms have been the inspiration of a prodigious amount of innovation over the last 6 years. This case study presents a candid historical and architectural perspective of the developments of the recent years. From management integration to the gamut of array-based offloads, we will discuss what the role is for intelligent storage in these datacenters, how that niche has evolved and a little of what can be expected as we look into the future.

Learning Objectives

Follow a comany's transformation from virtualized storage to storage for virtualized platforms
Discuss future trends in virtualized storage systems
Analyze the role of intelligent storage in datacenters