By moving further into a virtual-heavy computing environment, companies have to realize the added complexity that will come to their networks to support it. One part of this comes from maintaining adequate SAN environments. So, are there alternatives and ways around the problem? LeftHand Networks says yes.

In an article by Bryan Betts, LeftHand talks about a way to turn a few disk arrays and a couple of servers into a powerful SAN solution. This helps manage the complexity of introducing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). For instance, if you build a set server image and a set desktop image, and then just customize things like IP, MAC, etc, then having a single base image will reduce storage requirements and use fewer sectors of the SAN to spin the various iterations.

By way of handling SmartClone management, and because it integrates with technology like Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager, this looks like a technology worth considering for your data center environment. The software itself, SAN/iQ8 is available to run either on a physical or virtual server, and according to the article, it will come as a free upgrade for customers on support contacts.

We'll talk about this in greater detail at the upcoming Next Data Center event. Please swing by to check it out.