Understanding Storage Service Management

The challenge to delivering storage services lies in the fact that while IT’s customers are requesting service, IT’s view of its network storage environment is device-centric. Switches, hosts and arrays all have their own configuration elements that can be managed through storage resource management (SRM) applications. But these elements alone do not create a storage service. Storage services are actually created through a combination of devices and the interdependencies among them. No single device or combination of devices can provide a service-centric view.

Consider, for example, the challenge of understanding the exact service level provided to a host on the storage network. The host is connected to the storage network through an adapter card. The adapter card connects to a cable that terminates at a port on a switch somewhere in the network. Inside the switch, the storage traffic is routed to another port on the switch. A new cable carries this traffic to the storage array. Once inside the storage array, the traffic is routed to the appropriate physical storage device. Meanwhile some portions of the array are replicated to an offsite BC facility.