Storage virtualization

In computer science, storage virtualization is 'the process of presenting a logical view of the physical storage resources to' a host computer system, 'treating all storage media (hard disk, optical disk, tape, etc.) in the enterprise as a single pool of storage.' In computer science, storage virtualization is 'the process of presenting a logical view of the physical storage resources to' a host computer system, 'treating all storage media (hard disk, optical disk, tape, etc.) in the enterprise as a single pool of storage.' A 'storage system' is also known as a storage array, disk array, or filer. Storage systems typically use special hardware and software along with disk drives in order to provide very fast and reliable storage for computing and data processing. Storage systems are complex, and may be thought of as a special purpose computer designed to provide storage capacity along with advanced data protection features. Disk drives are only one element within a storage system, along with hardware and special purpose embedded software within the system. Storage systems can provide either block accessed storage, or file accessed storage. Block access is typically delivered over Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SAS, FICON or other protocols. File access is often provided using NFS or SMB protocols.