Thin Provisioning

[Rishi_Manocha]

Symantec Helping Customers "Get Thin" and "Stay Thin"
 
Enterprise customers continue to share the intense pressure they are under to better manage their existing resources and thereby cut down on storage spend. In an effort to empower these customers, Symantec recently announced enhancements to Veritas Storage Foundation that will help to alleviate some of the pain. Enterprises can now automate their storage optimization in thin environments with Symantec’s unique approach to leveraging thin provisioning technology.
 
Even more exciting are all the array vendors who support Symantec's approach to thin provisioning. Symantec partners 3PAR, Compellent, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM and NetApp are all on board and have recently added support for Symantec's industry standard Thin Reclamation API that was announced last year. Check out all the hardware providers who are realizing the power of combining their systems with Symantec's storage management software to automate storage optimization in thin environments.
 
Josh Kahn, Symantec’s VP of SAMG, is “thrilled to have the industry rallying around Symantec and our leadership with thin provisioning,” and says that customers can now “automatically reclaim storage while migrating to a thin environment and continually optimize their storage environment over time, helping to make thin provisioning one of the most strategic initiatives today.”

Think of it like this -- not only is Symantec helping customers "get thin" but also "stay thin" by automating the granular, online reclamation of unused storage over time in a way that is transparent to the application, server and storage -- thus ensuring the arrays stay thin.

Industry analysts and others are predicting that thin provisioning will be one of the most adopted technologies in the data center over the course of 2010 and beyond. Here are some key features of Symantec's approach that storage administrators should consider:

• Combined with Veritas File System, Symantec’s cross-platform, thin-friendly file system, organizations can realize the full benefit of thin provisioned storage, including optimizing migrations and enabling storage reclamation.
• In addition, Storage Foundation is the only solution that discovers thin provisioned storage across heterogeneous vendors, while also enabling automated and online storage reclamation allowing organizations to stay thin over time.

Check out these additional thin provisioning resources for more details:

Videos:
Strategies for Identifying and Reclaiming Underutilized Storage
3Par Tool Talk Video: Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation (YouTube video embedded on Connect)
Optimize Thin Provisioning with Veritas Storage Foundation (screencast)
Leveraging the Power of Thin Provisioning
New Release: Introducing Veritas Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server 5.1 (Thomas Cornely, covers other things as well)
Game Changing Innovations in Veritas Storage Foundation and Veritas Cluster Server 5.1 (Part 2) (Thomas Cornely, covers other things as well)
 
Blogs:
DCIG Thin Provisioning Blog
The Difference Between Storage Foundation SmartMove and Hardware-based 'Zero Reclaim' Solutions
Four Steps to Storage Profitability
Storage Management: Turning Things Around (Part 2 of 4) (part of a 4-part-series by Phil Goodwin, covers other things as well)
 
Articles:
Veritas Storage Foundation and Thin Provisioning: Rationale, Configuration and Benefits
IT Budget Strategy in a Down Economy: Stop Buying Storage!