Three degrees of storage virtualization
Over the years, virtualization has been employed in almost every facet of storage technology: disk, controller, array, SAN, LAN and even host (think logical volume manager). At the risk of oversimplification, I'd suggest that there are three broad categories: inside the box, outside the box and tape emulation. Each of these offers distinct benefits as well as some commonalities.
A closer look at storage virtualization
Managing disk storage was once simple: If we needed more space, we got a bigger disk drive. But data storage needs grew, so we started adding multiple disk drives. Finding and managing these became harder and took more time, so we developed RAID, network-attached storage and storage-area networks. Still, managing and maintaining thousands of disk drives became an ever more onerous task. The latest answer to this dilemma is storage virtualization.
The virtual mindset
As companies are diving deeper into virtualized storage projects, IT managers are getting a better understanding of the staff skills they need to make those projects succeed. The exact talents required depend on the type of storage implementation, but most employers say they're in the market for two kinds of IT worker: technicians with vendor-specific SAN or NAS knowledge, and systems administrators and IT architects who understand the complexities and interdependencies among applications, operating systems and I/O, all of which affect storage requirements.
Google phone faces some limitations on corporate email
I like the new Google phone, which was made available by T-Mobile last week. Long-term, it’s going to be a mighty competitor to the Apple iPhone. The presence of smartphones in general, whether they are from Google, Apple, RIM, or anybody else, has made mobile email part of the enterprise.
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