(Reprinted from Computerworld Magazine)

Virtualization -- creating logical pools of IT resources not linked to physical devices -- can reduce spending on new server and storage hardware, increase application uptime and simplify IT management. But organizations will only get those benefits if they follow some key steps, according to IT managers, analysts and other industry observers.

1) Understand virtualization

Some users purchase storage virtualization for only one purpose without realizing the other benefits it can provide them, says Mike Karp, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, a research group in Boulder, Colo. For example, "It does not necessarily pay to buy file-based virtualization technology just to do data migration," he says. Storage virtualization becomes more worthwhile, he says, when it is also used for purposes such as capacity management, load balancing and "information life-cycle management," which moves data to less expensive storage devices as the data becomes less valuable.

Tell that to Thomas Williamson, manager of network operations who purchased VMware ESX to virtualize 25 servers at the Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He wasn't aware that he could also virtualize the storage for those virtual machines. It was only after purchasing a 4TB Dell/EMC CX300 SAN that he learned from a user's group about DataCore Software Corp.'s SANmelody storage and virtualization management software.

Williamson says SANmelody allows him to use regular servers linked to low-cost disk arrays to expand his storage capacity, and to use features such as snapshotting at far less cost than with the Dell/EMC SAN. "The biggest mistake for us was ... our lack of research," he says. "When we found out about DataCore, we [thought] why didn't we wait the extra month; why didn't we possibly research the thought of storage virtualization?"