Storage virtualisation can help firms reduce costs by facilitating dynamic tiered storage, according to one expert.
Writing on his company blog, Hu Yoshida, vice president and chief technical officer of Hitachi Data Systems, said that storage virtualisation means data can be moved or copied within tiers without requiring the application to be stopped or suspended.
Instead, by using the virtualisation solution the application can run on a virtual image of the data throughout the process.
According to the expert, copying data is the most practical option as it does not interrupt the application and a further advantage of using storage virtualisation is that it allows copies of data to be made to a lower cost tier or in some cases a higher performance tier of storage.
"By using storage virtualisation to provide dynamic tiered storage you can reduce the amount you spend on tier one storage," Mr Yoshida noted.
Research by Hitachi Data Systems recently highlighted that more UK firms are planning to turn to virtualisation solutions to help lower operational and capital expenditure in the coming year.