Home > Storage > PowerMax and VMAX > Storage Admin > Dell PowerMax and VMware vSphere Configuration Guide > Introduction
Unlike storage arrays of the past, the Dell PowerMax array contains multiple performance service levels. This gives the storage administrator, server administrator, and VMware administrator the challenge of selecting the correct service level for each application being deployed. The trend toward virtualizing the entire environment to optimize IT infrastructures exacerbates the problem by consolidating multiple disparate applications on a small number of large devices.
Given this challenge, it is not uncommon that single service level, e.g., diamond, best suited for the most demanding application, is selected for all virtual machine deployments, effectively assigning all applications, regardless of their performance requirements, to the same high-performance level. This traditional approach is wasteful since all applications and data are not equally performance-critical to the business. Furthermore, within applications themselves, particularly those reliant upon databases, there is also the opportunity to further diversify the storage make-up.
Applications can also benefit from array policies that throttle IO to give the correct performance commensurate with the application requirements.
Both Dell and VMware offer technologies to help ensure that critical applications receive performance that meets the needs of those applications. These technologies can work independently or, when configured correctly, can complement each other.
This chapter addresses the following technologies: