Treating storage as a single logical entity without regard to the hierarchy of physical media that may be involved or that may change. It enables the applications to read from and write to a single pool of storage rather then individual disks, tapes and optical devices. Also called "file virtualization," it allows excess capacity on a server to be shared, and it can make migration from one file server to another transparent to the applications. See HSM, storage management, SAN and virtualization.
Not Necessarily "Virtual Storage"
Although the terms sound similar and can be sometimes used synonymously, "storage virtualization" and "virtual storage" often mean entirely different things. Storage virtualization deals with a pool of storage devices. Virtual storage is an alternate term for "virtual memory," which deals with extending the computer's internal memory by saving it to disk. See virtual memory and storage.
Not Necessarily "Virtual Storage"
Although the terms sound similar and can be sometimes used synonymously, "storage virtualization" and "virtual storage" often mean entirely different things. Storage virtualization deals with a pool of storage devices. Virtual storage is an alternate term for "virtual memory," which deals with extending the computer's internal memory by saving it to disk. See virtual memory and storage.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Amazon: Persistent storage open for EC2
- Amazon said Thursday that its Elastic Block Store feature is now available to all of its EC2 Web service customers. The move gives Amazon Web Services a full storage suite delivered as a service. EC2 is Amazon's storage service and the Elastic Block Store gives customers a...
- Blog posts 2008-08-21
- Live Demonstration on Aug. 21st: Disaster Recovery with VMware Site Recovery Manager and Dell EqualLogic PS Series
- Join Dell to discover how the PS Series virtualized iSCSI SAN and VMware Infrastructure 3 enable simple, affordable disaster recovery using Dell EqualLogic Auto-Replication and VMware Site Recovery Manager. This one hour live Webcast on Thursday, August 21st will highlight the integration of the industry's premier virtualized...
- Webcasts 2008-08-21
- Novell-Microsoft interop pact may look sweeter to IT shops these days
- Novell took a lot of heat from open source backers for executing an interoperability pact with Microsoft in late 2006 but the partnership -- strengthened with a new $100 million investment from Microsoft today -- is probably looking sweeter to mixed IT shops these days. Why? Because of recent...
- Blog posts 2008-08-20
- Why do you want WinFS?
- Every time the conversation turns to Windows 7, the subject of WinFS comes up. This next-generation file storage software was cut from Windows Vista and eventually killed completely nearly four years ago. But it keeps reappearing on lists of features that people want to see in Windows 7. Why? WinFS...
- Blog posts 2008-08-20
- Sun release claims Sun Ray shipments nearly double
- Sun just issued a press release claiming that its shipments of Sun Ray "thin client" systems nearly doubled. The most exciting part of the announcement was that the document was sent not as a text message, not as an HTML formatted document, but as a Sun Staroffice document. I'm sure...
- Blog posts 2008-08-20
- Windows 7 wishes
- Windows 7 wishesOn layers.Per Ed's post, IE 8 continues to be integrated and integral to the OS. It is likely that many other user space apps that MS creates, will at least be partially embedded, if not completely.End user applications have no business being part of the OS itself,...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-19
- HP delivers strong third quarter fueled by blades, international, notebooks
- HP on Tuesday reported fiscal third quarter earnings of $2 billion, or 80 cents a share, on revenue of $28 billion, up 10 percent from a year ago. Excluding items, HP reported earnings of 86 cents a share, 3 cents ahead of Wall Street estimates. Revenue also...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- Is the enterprise ready for cloud computing?
- Is the enterprise ready for cloud computing?My boss likes to look at IT as a cost...center. I asked him the other day to turn off all computers then try to do business. He said he couldn't. Well then it looks like your IT is responsible for 100% of your revenue....
- Discussion threads 2008-08-19
- Conversation with HP's Roberto Moctezuma
- I recently had the chance to speak with Roberto Moctezuma, VP, Desktop Solutions Organization for HP about the company's approach to providing its customers with desktop and client virtualization solutions. I've spoken with one of Roberto's team, Tad Bodman, and posted HP and Desktop Virtualization a while back. ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- Is the enterprise ready for cloud computing?
- Guest post: This is a post by Barry X Lynn, CEO of 3Tera, in response to a discussion about whether cloud computing is industrial strength. Lynn can be found on the 3Tera blog. There have been multiple white papers and articles written on the topic -...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- News to know: IDF; Office 14; Google; Flash flaw; MobileMe; Zoho
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily: Jason O'Grady: MobileMe subscribers get a 60 day extension Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Is the "killer app" argument dead? More info on USB 3.0 emerges ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- Microsoft unveils Application Server License Mobility change to ease some virtualization headaches
- Microsoft unveils Application Server License Mobility change to ease some virtualization headachesInteresting timing: MSFT waited till they had a virtualization product....Interesting timing: MSFT waited till they had a virtualization product to announce this.We've been hindered by this for two years already. We heaviliy use virtualization and server farms to...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-18
- SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus (4GB)
- The 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Titanium ($50) is a new kind of flash drive that offers an automated online backup each time it's attached to a computer with an Internet connection. This model looks almost exactly the same as the original Sandisk Cruzer Titanium, but this one lets you perform automatic...
- Product reviews 2008-08-18
- Microsoft unveils Application Server License Mobility change to ease some virtualization headaches
- Microsoft has quietly unveiled its much anticipated licensing change to ease virtualization: Application Server License Mobility. The licensing plan, quietly launched in a licensing brief on the company web site tonight, now allows customers to freely move VMs, virtual workloads -- and their respective licenses -- across multiple servers...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- CISCO: Why the Olympics didn't melt NBC
- Yesterday I posted about how Limelight Networks was used as the primary caching content provider for NBCOlympics.com and lifted a huge burden off on the public Internet by leveraging relationships with last mile ISPs. It's an amazing story about how technology can be used to solve immense problems. ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- More info on USB 3.0 emerges
- More info on USB 3.0 emerges4.8Gbps Huh?Not too shabby, now only if I can think of a consumer computer peripheral that can utilize that speed. With the other bottle necks in data storage devices such as hard drives I think there is a need to improve those data...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-18
- Data architects: You're "hot"
- Yes you are.Information and data architects and information security experts, here's some good news: You're the hottest. Fear not, data and content-oriented business analysts, business and enterprise architects and vendor management experts: You're extremely hot as well. Enterprise application strategists, IT planners, network architects and enterprise project...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Delivering the Olympics: Akamai and Limelight respond
- Akamai disputes Limelight Networks' take on its infrastructure and my recent post, Limelight Networks: Why the Olympics didn't 'Melt' the Internet. Limelight, however, says its implementation facts are accurate and that it absolutely stands behind its words.Keep in mind that the two companies compete fiercely and have different takes on...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- IBM: The mainframe is back
- IBM: The mainframe is backMainframe decision makers...As long as IT departments are headed by baby boomers who are in bed with IBM, the z series will continue to exist and propogate. There are a number of old systems (re: COBOL) that still meet the business needs, and will continue...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-18
- From Metasploit to Microsoft: Skape goes to Redmond
- Metasploit developer Matt Miller, who for years frustrated Microsoft officials with the public release of Windows exploits, is heading to Redmond to join Microsoft's Security Science team. Miller, who uses the hacker moniker Skape,will work on improved ways to find security vulnerabilities and better software defenses through...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- ZDNet News Videos
-
Tech news covering the latest in products, conferences and blog commentary, from ZDNet video.
- Watch the latest video >>
- Demo: Virtualization with the Intel® Xeon® Processor
-
In this Flash demo, you'll learn about virtualization performance and features ideal for consolidation, load balancing, and disaster recovery with leading enterprise reliability.
- Watch how the Intel Xeon processor can increase performance and reliability of your servers >>
Ultraportables
- Understanding Ultraportable Laptops (BNET)
- Five steps to protect mobile devices anywhere, anytime (TechRepublic)
- View all ZDNet Toshiba laptop reviews
- From our sponsors
- Toshiba Satellite® U400 Series
-
- The ultra-portable, ultra-stylish Satellite® U405 is a smart choice for you and your small business. Only from the laptop expert, Toshiba. Explore the complete laptop lineup »
-
