IBM has announced new and enhanced storage virtualization products for disk and tape storage; this includes the addition of the new IBM System Storage N series Virtual File Manager and enhancements to the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7520 tape solution.

In a recent report, analyst group IDC predicted that over the next five years, virtualization will emerge as an important competitive battleground in the storage industry, driving changes in storage system architectures, encouraging significant investments in new storage software solutions, and potentially disrupting the current competitive environment. According to the report, the deployment of block, file and tape virtualization will play a key role in helping companies pool storage resources across multiple classes of storage and applications while helping reduce the complexities of configuring storage systems and managing backups.

IBM adds to its virtualization portfolio today with the announcement of the IBM System Storage N series Virtual File Manager (VFM) in both Enterprise and Migration Editions. This file virtualization offering provides a comprehensive solution for managing unstructured file data across an enterprise. VFM software supports the virtualization of file systems residing on UNIX, Linux, Windows file servers and on IBM N series - a unified storage solution that meets the needs of customers from the midrange up to the large enterprise. VFM provides non-disruptive data management functionality for server and storage consolidation, migration, remote office data management and disaster recovery. This provides continuous user access to data, which is intended to ensure business continuity, by providing uninterrupted user access to data in the event of a disaster, or while performing storage consolidation or data migration.