By Abhik Mitra

29 September 2008

Organisations often buy extra storage capacity when they are sitting on unused disk space. Why? Because the way the gigabytes have been allocated does not allow for flexibility, and as a result some applications might be using a small percentage of their storage allocation while others are dangerously close to maximum capacity.
So how can the channel turn this dark picture into a revenue-generating one? The answer lies in the V word: virtualisation.
Today, many smaller organisations possess a wide variety of file, Exchange/mail, database, or SharePoint servers, alongside servers that run industry-specific applications. Each of these servers typically relies on its own dedicated storage capacity in the form of direct attached storage (DAS). While these users are seeing their data grow by at least 60% per year, their capacity requirements grow even higher because they cannot maximise existing storage by spreading it evenly across servers. So as more capacity is purchased and added storage becomes fragmented, its management rapidly becomes a time-consuming task for already overstretched system administrators. This is where the reseller can come in and save the day.
For many years, large enterprises have solved this challenge by using storage area networks (SANs) and storage virtualisation, where storage capacity from individual servers is pooled into a dedicated storage network. Then, once storage capacity is “liberated”, it can quickly and easily be allocated to servers as needed in a highly fluid manner.
The good news is that SAN and storage virtualisation technology have been brought within easy reach of smaller organisations. For the first time, an iSCSI SAN can be deployed inexpensively and easily using standard gigabit Ethernet NICs and switches, free software initiators and attractively priced iSCSI storage. Equally important for the administrators, on the implementation level, iSCSI-based storage is simple and easy to configure and run for their generalist IT staff because it is based on the Ethernet standard, a well-established and proven one that most IT managers have experience of.
Typically, the solution has been to throw extra storage capacity at servers running close to maximum utilisation, but application performance can suffer as a result. Because most systems are managed by generalists rather than storage administrators, the typical action to this apparent need for more capacity has been to replace a “full” server with one offering greater storage capacity, despite the performance and memory of the existing one being adequate. This strategy makes no sense financially or administratively because it demands greater monetary investment and technical effort.
A reseller that can demonstrate how to save budget and time while increasing storage capacity and application performance is likely to be welcome at many customers’ and prospects’ doors. This is why selling virtualisation is so appealing to the channel: there are no drawbacks for the customer or the reseller. Still wondering whether virtualisation is for you? ●