What are the best practices for virtualizing storage?

Before you start, understand its use - think bandwidth, IOPS, read/write ratio, distributed, archive, deep-archive, reliability, scalability, ... Rarely can storage be optimised for all use cases, so you need to think of where you can compromise without impacting users. For an HPC system you might trade scalability for performance. If most of your workload is AI/ML, prefer read over write. Need archive storage - scalability (inc public cloud especially if you think you'll need to scale down at any point). If you need to consider CO2e, prefer hard drives over SSD (they are more carbon intensive to operate but fabrication is much more carbon intensive). Need storage for VMs, block storage.

It depends on use-case requirements and is better to identify and classify the data, whether structured/relational highly organized, while unstructured is the opposite and can be text-or-non-textual. Keep the business and technology considerations in mind and plan accordingly. Storage identification will help you to choose the suitable media for storing, considering the performance, availability, scalability, compatibility, and feasibility factors. Consider Hybrid solutions combining different storage types and tiering the high-performance critical data; consider future-proofing. Considering the unique characteristics of the type of storage and aligning them with specific use cases, informed decisions can be made when virtualizing storage.

Depending on your workload, performance, scalability, and budget requirements, you may opt for different types of storage solutions, such as IBM FlashSystem, VMware vSAN, external storage arrays, or cloud storage.

My personal best practice is NetApp sotrage technology. From the prospectives of all data store aspects from structure, Availability, consistency, speed, security, robustness, and management of multi tearing and friendliness..

Planning: 1️⃣Set clear goals and performance requirements. 2️⃣Assess existing infrastructure for bottlenecks. 3️⃣Choose the right virtualization technology. 4️⃣Design a scalable storage architecture. Implementation: 1️⃣Prioritize data protection. 2️⃣Optimize storage allocation to VMs. 3️⃣Implement comprehensive monitoring. 4️⃣Automate provisioning, monitoring, and management. 5️⃣Stay updated on virtualization technology. Additional Tips: 1️⃣Use shared storage solutions. 2️⃣Consider tiering strategies. 3️⃣Leverage advanced features. 4️⃣Establish SLAs. 5️⃣Continuously evaluate and optimize. For details, please visit my profile. Thanks 👍

Before diving in, figure out what storage you need now and what you might need down the road; basically Get the Lay of the Land. Then Choose a system that fits your setup and can grow with your needs. Think about reliability, features, and how easy it is to expand etc

Yes agree, one thing that very important is we have to sort the data type for each storage type. In may case i only use SAN block storage pool to run VM in our company.

1️⃣Analyse your requirements, 2️⃣Use shared storage, 3️⃣Consider performance requirements, 4️⃣Evaluate scalability, 5️⃣Assess data protection and recovery, 6️⃣Consider storage architecture, 7️⃣Understand storage protocols, 8️⃣Leverage storage virtualization features, 9️⃣Consider vendor compatibility, 🔟Plan for backup and recovery.

1. Storage Design: Plan your storage architecture carefully. 2. Storage Area Network (SAN): Implementing a SAN can provide centralized storage management. 3. Network-Attached Storage (NAS): NAS provides file-level storage and can be a cost-effective option for virtualization. 4. RAID Configuration: Implement Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) to protect against disk failures. 5. Thin Provisioning: Take advantage of thin provisioning to allocate storage. 6. Storage Performance Monitoring: Regularly monitor storage performance. 7. Backup and Disaster Recovery: Implement a robust backup and disaster recovery strategy. 8. Storage Security: Implement appropriate security measures to protect your virtualization storage.

The measures for comparing and picking a storage solution usually boil down to: Reliability Performance Scalability Security Cost

Selecting the appropriate storage architecture depends on business needs and operations; specific storage architectures might be necessary when you know your data, organization's requirements, budget, scalability, and the type of business-critical applications. It is a critical component of data transfer and accessing information and provides data access across an enterprise. 80-90% of virtual machines reside on SAN storage. DAS is a simple and cost-effective architecture suitable for small-scale deployments. Many organizations tier Hybrid solutions; they need to plan carefully, assessing performance metrics and capacity utilization when deciding which storage will work best considering their reliability, availability and scalability.

Na arquitetura de armazenamento, a nuvem é essencial para atender LGPD e GDPR. Sua estrutura adaptável e segura é ideal para gerenciar dados sensíveis. A nuvem integra criptografia, controle de acesso e auditoria, tornando-se um ambiente seguro por design. Essa abordagem não só protege os dados, mas também facilita a conformidade regulatória. Com a nuvem, a arquitetura de armazenamento se alinha às exigências de proteção de dados, oferecendo uma solução estratégica e ágil para organizações que buscam conformidade constante com as normativas de privacidade.

1️⃣Understand the workload requirements, 2️⃣Choose the right storage technology, 3️⃣Implement redundancy and high availability, 4️⃣Ensure scalability, 5️⃣Consider performance optimization, 6️⃣Implement data protection and backup strategies, 7️⃣Use storage management tools, 8️⃣Prioritize security, 9️⃣Consider integration with virtualization platforms, 🔟Monitor and optimize storage performance.

This is probably the most important step, all the requirements: performance, compatibility, existing infrastructure compatibility, capacity planning; All should be reviewed carefully BEFORE purchase, and if possible always prepare a POC and make sure the manufacturer and reseller understand all the project requirements. Always avoid a too late correction that will cost both money and time.

El diseño de la arquitectura es fundamental y para decidir cuál se requiere, depende del tipo de información que se desea almacenar, con esto se evalúa la calidad y los costos para elegir la estructura de almacenamiento adecuada.

It is possible to optimize the storage performance by using the appropriate storage protocols, caching mechanisms, disk types, RAID levels, and alignment techniques. For example, for SQL Server on Azure VMs, you should plan for the highest uncached IOPS available and use data caching as a performance feature for data reads

Again pre-work... Make sure your data has copies and backups. That way, if something goes south, you've still got your info safe and sound then run optimisation scenarios. Be smart about how you divvy up your storage space. You can make things more efficient by using tricks like assigning storage dynamically. Once you have this sorted, you can secure it.

1️⃣Use high-performance storage hardware, 2️⃣Implement a storage tiering strategy, 3️⃣Utilize solid-state drives (SSDs), 4️⃣Implement storage caching, 5️⃣Employ storage thin provisioning, 6️⃣Enable storage deduplication and compression, 7️⃣Implement network optimizations, 8️⃣Monitor and analyse storage performance, 9️⃣Optimize virtual machine (VM) placement, 🔟Regularly update and optimize storage software.

Efficient scalability is an important key for running out of capacity in a high compute environment leads to flow on effects across profitability, customer experience and brand reputation

A integração de Inteligência Artificial (IA) e Aprendizado de Máquina (ML) está revolucionando o armazenamento de TI. Algoritmos de ML antecipam demandas de armazenamento, ajustando recursos automaticamente para eficiência máxima e prevenção de gargalos. A IA otimiza a compactação de dados e eliminação de duplicatas, aprendendo quais arquivos são mais acessados. Na otimização da rede, a IA age como um maestro, gerenciando o fluxo de dados para reduzir latência e maximizar largura de banda. Essa abordagem transforma armazenamento de TI em sistemas mais inteligentes e responsivos às necessidades dinâmicas de dados.

El mantenimiento es esencial en este tipo de dispositivos, ya que dependiendo del uso y el tiempo, necesita optimización ya que se puede ver afectado el rendimiento de almacenaje y con esto tener problemas a futuro de perdida de Información o daño físico.

Implement encryption, use different algorithms, implement UAC, enforce authentication, and, more importantly, classify the sensitive data and keep it in different segments. Without the data protection policy, sensitive information could fall into the hands of attackers, allowing them to gain access to your network and execute corporate espionage or expose personal data. Also, consider the network and system security by implementing the Firewall, Antivirus, Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDS, IPS). Always perform regular backups considering the different on-site and off-site copies in any uncertain disaster. Also, keep track of data logging activities and have training sessions with users, as they can compromise data security.

You can possibly define a minumum security baseline for your storage, but, in order to achieve a proper, effective and efficient protection level, the key point is understanding what is that you are protecting. Proper data identification and labelling will enable the implementation of any controls in a granular manner. Security controls will have impacts in terms of space, time and money, so you have to focus on securing the data, and not the storage. Thus, finding where to apply encryption or tokenization, when to ask for a 2FA, what to monitor or how to apply access controls are mandatory to implement a meaningful protection.

1️⃣Encryption, 2️⃣Access Controls, 3️⃣Auditing and Logging, 4️⃣Patch Management, 5️⃣Backup and Disaster Recovery, 6️⃣Data Segregation, 7️⃣Monitoring and Intrusion Detection, 8️⃣Security Awareness Training, 9️⃣Vendor and Third-Party Security Assessments, 🔟Regular Risk Assessments.

La protección de datos es esencial para mantener la privacidad y la seguridad de la información, por lo qué es de vital importancia contar con un cifrado de datos seguro y eficaz.

It is also essential to monitor the storage health and temperature and monitor different drive attributes to detect a failing disk, and storage performance issues can negatively impact the end user through application performance problems, such as delays or downtime. Monitoring them is crucial to ensure end-user success and overall business continuity. Performance bottlenecks can be challenging when multiple technology stack tiers depend on data storage devices and systems. Plenty of industry standards tools are available that efficiently monitor and alert different tiered storage.

Really important to avoid over-provisioning and over-allocating the storage resources to the virtual machines. Allocate only the amount of vCPU and vRAM that is required for the workload and monitor the storage utilization and capacity regularly.

1️⃣Regularly monitor storage metrics, 2️⃣Set up alerts and notifications, 3️⃣Establish baseline performance, 4️⃣Use comprehensive monitoring tools, 5️⃣Monitor storage health at different levels, 6️⃣Monitor storage redundancy and data protection, 7️⃣Conduct regular capacity planning, 8️⃣Regularly update and patch storage software, 9️⃣Implement a sound change management process, 🔟Continuously assess and optimize storage performance.

Take advantage of performance monitoring tools offered by your virtualization platform or consider using third-party solutions. This will help ensure optimal storage performance.

Visibility is always a must, it’s the way you can measure performance, anticipate user experience and detect issues before happening or right on the spot. An overall way to sleep better.

Indeed. Check how your storage is doing regularly. If things slow down, you might need to tweak some settings for better performance.

A observabilidade no armazenamento de TI? É como ter um sexto sentido. Não é só olhar para os números; é entender a história por trás deles. Como um bom detetive, ela nos mostra padrões ocultos, antecipando problemas antes que eles virem dores de cabeça. Com IA e ML, é como ter um assistente esperto que automatiza o trabalho chato, nos deixando livres para focar no que realmente importa. E quanto à segurança e conformidade? A observabilidade é o nosso guardião, mantendo tudo nos trilhos. É mais do que tecnologia; é a espinha dorsal que mantém nossos dados seguros e nossas operações alinhadas com os objetivos da empresa.

El tener revisiones de manera programada evita y previene de manera sustancial problemas a futuro y mantiene el estado del almacenamiento en buen estado de salud.

Ensure that backup is implemented and there is a recovery strategy for virtualized storage. Features such as snapshots, replication, encryption, and deduplication can be used to protect data from loss, corruption, or theft.

In addition, prioritize the implementation of backup solutions and real-time monitoring tools. Proactively manage data duplication to optimize storage space and enforce robust security measures, including access controls, to safeguard sensitive data effectively.

Digital Apps require a certain level of throughput to run at optimal efficiency. After all, if an app struggles to receive the necessary level of performance, the flow-on effect impacts everything from productivity to end user experience.

Data backup and recovery: Implement a robust backup and recovery strategy for your virtualized storage. Utilize technologies like snapshots, replication, or backup software specifically designed for virtualized environments. Regularly test and validate your backup and recovery processes. Utilize thin provisioning: Thin provisioning allows you to allocate storage on-demand rather than allocating the full capacity upfront. This approach helps to optimize storage utilization by avoiding wastage of unused capacity. However, monitor and manage thin-provisioned storage to prevent running out of physical capacity. Stay updated and patch regularly: Keep your virtual storage infrastructure up-to-date with the latest patches and firmware updates.

Make sure your setup can grow or shrink as your needs change. It's like having an elastic storage system that can stretch or shrink when needed and Keep everything up to date with the latest patches and updates. That way, you'll have fewer problems down the line.