If you deploy file virtualization and aren't satisfied with it, is it hard to back out of?
Again, that depends on the implementation and that's sort of a buyer-beware situation. You have to look at each of these tool sets when you're using them for tiered storage or if you're using them for business needs responsive of data mobility. You need to be aware of what you're getting yourself into in terms of long-term commitment and always have a plan for backing out, unless you're sold that it is your long-term solution.
So you either need to vet very well upfront to know that you're going to get for performance, ease of use and everything else up front from your file virtualization solution. Or, you just need to enter the solution gradually enough and have a roll back plan to get out. That really comes down to decent management practices around the tool set.
You can create a pretty hairy mess as you move data around if you use file virtualization half heartedly. So you need to have some scope in mind when you engage these tools. Think in terms of only using these tools for data migration and rigorously tiering this type of data, so you know that you can back out if you need to. Anything that you depart from this practice on, document it, be aware of it and know that you can unstructure the environment after you've deployed these tools.
Some vendors are better than others at making sure that they're not forever connected to your infrastructure and that you can easily back out of them. That's worth having as an evaluation criteria and it's definitely a differentiator between some of the solutions.
Jeff Boles is senior analyst with the Taneja Group. Jeff has 20 years of IT experience as an end user, and today remains hands-on with technologies as the director of Taneja's Technology Validation testing services.
