Quoting from Byte and Switch:
Even though storage virtualization isn't catching on as fast as many had hoped, it is finding its way into IT shops and it is adding value for those who are using it to its fullest advantage. Listen to FirstMerit Bank of Akron, Ohio's story about their virtualization environment and their virtualized SAN solution which saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The bank started off replacing their DAS system with an IBM mid-range SAN system. Unfortunately, the accounts at the bank started growing beyond what their SAN could keep up with. The bottlenecks came from highly accessed applications battling for I/O.
IBM's answer? Try one of their new products at the time, IBM's SAN Volume Controller (SVC) which could virtualize their storage.
After getting comfortable with SVC, Samic deployed EMC’s VMware to virtualize the bank’s servers -- mostly IBM BladeCenter blades connected to the SAN. He is now running approximately 114 virtual servers in his SAN. "Without the I/O capabilities of SVC, there's no way you can have so much efficiency in the SAN where you don't have to worry about contention issues."
Samic estimates virtualization has saved his bank around $300,000 so far.
Savings come from being able to consolidate servers, while avoiding the addition
of more arrays and staffers. Samic is one of two storage admins at the bank.
He’s not finished virtualizing, either. “Now I'm looking to take it one step
further and continue the virtual infrastructure with applications like Altirus
and Softricity, getting down to the application level and virtualizing
applications,” he says.
Read the original article,
here.