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    Initially, managing storage capacity of disk was an easy task. The computer professionals got bigger disk drives if greater storage was experienced. As and when the need for data storage grew, computer professionals added extra disk drives to store the increased data. Instantly, computer professionals knew that it became lengthy and hard process to recover the stored data. Thus, to manage this situation, the computer experts developed RAID, network attached storage and storage area networks. But then too, it became extremely hard to manage and organize thousands of disk drives.

This was the time when the need for Storage Virtualization was felt. Storage Virtualization works as a link between the storage system and servers by putting a new layer of software as well as/or hardware in-between the two. This helped the applications to track the data easily whether it is stored in any disk drive, partitions or storage sub-systems. This further aided the professionals to know, manage and provide the dispersed storage just like a single, united resource. Moreover, the availability was considerably improved with storage virtualization because the applications are not limited to particular storage resources and therefore protected from interruptions. Storage Virtualization also boosts the storage capacity significantly and that too automatically, thereby decreasing manual provision. These can be updated instantly without disturbing the functionality of the applications, and this reduced the downtime. Technology: Storage Virtualization performs as a basic interface between the storage and servers because it is a transitional layer. The Virtualization is considered to be the only storage device at the server end, whereas the virtualization is seen as their sole server by each storage device. Hence, this aids to categorize the storage systems easily and also devices from several sources in layers of storage.

It is possible for the user to exchange the tape or disk drives conveniently and this happens due to the fact that the applications and servers are protected from any change to storage device by the layer . At the storage virtualization layer, the data copying services are also effectively managed. Thus, this implies that the data recovery can be easily done by virtualization system at the time of disasters. As the data can be moved at users choice, the data that is not used frequently or any outdated data can be moved to inexpensive storage devices.

There are three methods by which the storage virtualization can be arranged:

- Host Based: The traditional device drivers maintain the physical drives while the software that is above the device driver stops I/O requests, sees the metadata and diverts I/O.

- Storage Device based: Here the storage virtualization is in-built in storage fabric. In this type of set-up, the system offers repitition and relocation services across various controllers.

- Network based: Here the storage virtualization is arranged to form a network based device. This set-up normally uses Fiber Channel Networks linked as a SAN.

The computer experts consider all three set-ups to work efficiently. Although, the Virtualization endorses cross-vendor storage operation, assisting you to handle in many vendor sources. But the fact is most of the set-ups clutch you in a definite source.

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