Traditionally, data centers have attempted to respond to growth by adding servers and storage systems dedicated to specific applications, business functions, customers, and geographic locations. Over time, the result has been a complex, inflexible infrastructure that is difficult and costly to manage.

To solve these problems, organizations are turning to virtualization technologies. The benefits of virtualization are well understood: it helps reduce capital and running costs; it allows organizations to be more flexible and nimble in response to market changes; and, as every environmentally-aware CIO knows, helps reduce the data center's carbon footprint through lower power and cooling requirements.

To take full advantage of server virtualization, and create a true virtual data center, IT departments need a holistic storage solution that allows fully shared resources, easy and automated storage classification and migration and complete data protection. Read this white paper for three "must haves" to achieve those objectives.