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File Virtualization
Reduce infrastructure complexity and storage costs by virtualizing file-based storage
File virtualization provides a layer of intelligence in the network that eliminates the inflexible mapping which typically ties clients to file servers. This technology decouples the logical access to files from their physical location, so files are free to move and storage devices are free to change, without disrupting users, applications or your business.
F5 intelligent file virtualization simplifies data management further by providing automated, policy-based management across heterogeneous storage environments. The end result is reduced storage expenditures and management overhead, and accelerated business workflows.
Why do I need file virtualization?
Business benefits of using F5 with your file virtualization solution include:
- Reduced capital expenditure through storage tiering.
Moving non-critical business data off of expensive storage resources to lower cost storage alternatives can reduce spending on disk capacity by 50 to 80%. - Dramatically lower backup windows and costs.
Creating a tiered storage environment and establishing different backup policies for the primary and secondary storage tiers can slash backup times by 50 to 80% and lower overall backup costs. - Simplified storage management lightens the load on ITAutomating data management tasks and simplifying client-to-resource mappings eliminates business disruptions, eases the storage administration burden, and reduces operational costs.
- Improved file storage utilization and business workflow.
Consolidating capacity from multiple devices into a unified storage pool and dynamically distributing demand eliminates bottlenecks before they happen and improves application performance and business workflow.
Top Case Studies
- Lulu.com Takes Control of Storage Environment and Improves Vendor Management with File Virtualization
- File virtualization yields big gains in efficiency for major financial firm
- Financial institution profits with policy-based data management
- Foster and Partners reduces costs and improves operational efficiencies
Top News Articles
Latest OnDemand Content
Intelligent file virtualization enables enterprises to more efficiently access, manage, and optimize file storage resources.
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How do I implement file virtualization?
When you virtualize your file-based storage you begin by creating a Global Namespace, which is a logical representation of file content from all physical file servers. Clients then access the Global Namespace rather than the physical file servers. This simplifies file access, since the client is now mapped to the Global Namespace rather than to multiple network drives. Changes to storage devices and the movement of file data is hidden from client systems, freeing IT from the need to constantly remap clients when files are moved or new storage provisioned.
Once the file storage environment is virtualized, policy-based automation capabilities can be introduced to automate the movement and placement of files for data migration, storage tiering, storage load balancing and data replication.
What F5 offerings do I need for a file virtualization solution?
F5 ARX devices are high-performance, highly available intelligent file virtualization systems. They do not introduce a new file system into the network; instead, they act as proxies to the file systems that already exist. ARX solutions scale as you grow without compromising performance, and use industry-standard file access protocols, including CIFS for Windows networks and NFS for UNIX or Linux networks. In addition, the F5 devices supply a Global Namespace and offer a rich set of automated data management policies for data migration, storage tiering, storage load balancing and data replication.
