Storage is just one of three main technology resources being virtualized into
such pools via provisioning technology. But though requirements for the other
two--computing power and network connectivity--are expected to increase or
decrease dynamically based on workload, storage needs are likely to grow
steadily, according to IT professionals. "Processing and network needs can go up
and down 20 percent or 30 percent," says Paul Mercurio, senior vice president
and CIO of Mobil Travel Guide in Park Ridge, Ill. "In storage, all we do is go
up."
Mobil Travel Guide, a spin-off of ExxonMobil, worked with IBM Global
Services to build a Linux infrastructure in an IBM mainframe that allows IT
resources to be turned on and off, albeit with a delay of about a day, which
Mercurio says he can live with. The company pays for its storage allocation on
an as-needed basis, and its requirement is growing fast as services are added.
"When we need more, we just call IBM and, boom, it's there," Mercurio says.
For some companies looking to provide on-demand storage to clients or staff,
a storage infrastructure that uses provisioning technologies is proving to be a
successful investment. BlueStar Solutions, a Cupertino, Calif., firm that
outsources services based on applications such as J.D. Edwards, Oracle and SAP
to customers on a charge-back basis, has found pooling storage resources among
its clients the best way to manage those resources.
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