Virtualization can be a tricky technology for storage managers who need to apply traditional methods while navigating new obstacles.

Storage teams with lots of activity on the systems virtualization side face an interesting challenge: How should they deal with virtual hosts? Should they be treated as individual servers or as applications running on host systems? And what's the best way to ensure that virtual hosts don't cause a tilt in the delicate IO balance? In this article I outline key considerations for storage architects and administrators who design and implement virtualized systems.