Chapter 2. System overview 11
Storage can then be deployed from these pools, and migrated transparently between pools 
without interruption to the attached host systems and their applications. Storage virtualization 
provides a single set of tools for advanced functions, such as instant copy and remote 
mirroring solutions, which enables faster and seamless deployment of storage regardless of 
the underlying hardware.
Because the storage virtualization represented by IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a 
software-enabled function, it offers more features that are typically not available on a regular 
pure storage subsystem, including (but not limited to) the following features:
/SM590000Data compression
/SM590000Software and hardware encryption
/SM590000IBM Easy Tier® for workload balancing
/SM590000Thin provisioning
/SM590000Mirroring and copy services
/SM590000Interface to Cloud Service Providers
Figure 2-2 shows these features.
Figure 2-2   IBM Spectrum Storage virtualization
The following reasons are the five top reasons to choose software-defined storage 
virtualization infrastructure and benefit from IBM Spectrum Virtualize:
/SM590000Lower license cost. Avoid purchasing licenses from multiple storage vendors for advanced 
features (replication, tiering, snapshots, compression, and so on) of each external storage 
subsystem. Manage them centrally from IBM Spectrum Virtualize.
/SM590000Feed more data on physical disks. External SAN disk arrays have physical boundaries. 
Although one subsystem might run out of space, another has free capacity. Virtualization 
removes these boundaries.
/SM590000Choose lower-cost disk arrays. Less-demanding applications can easily run on cheaper 
disks with lower performance. IBM Spectrum Virtualize automatically and transparently 
moves data up and down between low-performance and high-performance disk arrays 
(tiering).
/SM590000Cloud FlashCopy. IBM Spectrum Virtualize has an interface to the external cloud service 
providers. IBM Spectrum Cloud FlashCopy supports full and incremental backup and 
restore from cloud snapshots.