Survey on VMware Virtual Volume – Primary Data

Primary Data, Inc. issued the results from a survey on VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) conducted at VMworld 2015 in San Francisco, CA.

One of the most powerful features in vSphere 6, vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) allow underlying storage to become VM-aware, providing finer control at a per VM level. In addition, VVOLs simplifies storage management through the use of policies. The study found that while 60% of enterprises are in various stages of VVOLs discussions and implementations, only 7% had completed a VVOLs installation at the time of the survey due to a variety of challenges.
 
While nearly half of the surveyed enterprises have virtualized more than 80% of their server infrastructure, and almost two-thirds have virtualized 60% or more, VVOLs represents a new opportunity for adding more virtualization efficiency through VM-aware storage. The top reasons enterprises cited for seeking to add VVOLs to their infrastructure include simplifying storage, as well as improving storage scalability and VM manageability. Without VVOLs, companies are currently forced to overprovision storage to ensure that applications running in a VM environment have the resources required to meet the dynamic business needs of the enterprise.
 
With fewer than 10% of enterprises completing a VVOLs installation to date, virtualization experts cited a number of challenges to adoption, including lack of VVOLs expertise among IT staff, performance and migration issues, as well as lack of storage system support for VVOLs. Among those who wished to add more virtualization to their environment, cost and performance were cited as factors holding their enterprise back.
 
“The survey found that 43% of enterprises felt that lack of storage support was a hurdle to VVOLs adoption, but since the respondents’ top concern was lack of IT expertise, we predict that awareness of storage challenges will rise as virtualization professionals deepen their knowledge of the requirements for VVOLs implementation,” said Primary Data CEO Lance Smith. “Data virtualization complements server virtualization to further optimize datacenter efficiency and cost savings while simplifying VVOL management. This streamlines the IT learning curve, making it simple to adopt these breakthroughs without having to rip and replace a single storage system.”
 
Data virtualization has emerged as a catalyst that enables enterprises to adopt VVOLs using existing storage, overcoming the need to procure newly qualified VVOLs storage options. Currently in beta use with a number of early access customers, the Primary Data DataSphere data virtualization platform is being designed to serve as a Universal vSphere Storage APIs (VASA) for Storage Awareness storage provider for vSphere Virtual Volumes. This enables existing storage resources, from server-side flash, shared and cloud storage, to be presented as a single, adaptable, easy-to-manage vSphere VVOLs datastore managed in VMware vCenter Server.