The future of the data center clearly rests on virtualization. Without breaking the ties between hardware and software, there is no rapid scalability, no data flexibility, no cloud.
But it seems that few people are giving thought to the infrastructure implications of this transition. A key question at this point is: What’s to become of the Storage Area Network (SAN)?
Those of you who are already pushing the virtual envelope might be wondering how your current SAN will be able to cope in an increasingly complex environment. As Anand Perisamy of storage software developer Gluster points out, non-virtual architectures were able to cope with one server having one Logical Unit Number (LUN). But increasing numbers of VMs, each with their own LUN, quickly overloads most SANs. VMware’s Virtual Machine File System helps somewhat, but it still does not address the fundamental issue of scalability on the actual SAN.
Source:http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=14594
