File Virtualization Evolving: Q&A with Klavs Landberg

KL: You can use server virtualization to put multiple Windows operating systems on a single computer.  This allows you to consolidate application servers and reduce physical device sprawl.  But server virtualization doesn’t help much with management complexity.  

With file virtualization, you can reduce both physical devices and operating systems without changing the way that files are presented to end-users.  You can consolidate a large number of small file servers to a single file server.  You manage just one logical system – one piece of hardware, and one operating system.  The file virtualization takes care of client referrals to the actual location of their data, and clients continue to see their files in their original location.  

File virtualization does not stop there.  Now you can move data freely – you can tier it, replicate it, or archive it.  Bottom line: Server virtualization is for consolidating applications.  File virtualization enables and provides a complete storage management solution.  

KL: Sort of.  I have always thought of AutoVirt as the integrated combination of file virtualization and policy-based automation.  File virtualization is a way to automate storage management and make it non-disruptive.   File virtualization creates a separate data model that is designed to fulfill the needs of end-users, and at the same time, to provide IT complete independence to manage data and storage whenever and however they need.  

So is AutoVirt a file virtualization or a data management solution?  Both.  The focus depends on who you’re talking with and what their frame of reference is.

KL: Lots of people still don’t realize what file virtualization will do for their environment.  File virtualization is similar to DNS in a very direct way.  The common purpose is to help users navigate their networks and find the resources and data that they need to do their jobs.  File virtualization does for file access exactly what DNS does for browsing.   

File virtualization is unique in that it separates access paths from the physical location of networked data.  In storage environments where data must be moved – and this is the case in most environments today – a literal interpretation of file server and share names is not much better than people memorizing IP addresses.  For this reason, file virtualization and global namespaces are as inevitable as gravity.  

People also don’t realize that file virtualization can be installed quickly and seamlessly – without any changes to the way that users see their networked files, and without manual work for IT.