Storage integration
VMware vSphere has several different types of storage integration solutions and technologies, some started in version 4.1 (such as VAAI), others more recently (such as VVol), directed towards building a fully software-defined storage (SDS) stack.
VMware vSphere Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM)
SPBM is an extension of the VM Storage Policies and the foundation of the SDS control vision from VMware. SPBM enables vSphere administrators to simplify storage provisioning and management, by assigning to each virtual machine the required storage features and capabilities. VM will be automatically provisioned on the right datastore that respects these requirements.
SPBM interprets the different storage requirements and dynamically composes the different storage services, like placing the VM on the right storage tier, allocating capacity, providing snapshots, replication, and so on. To understand storage features and capabilities, vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness ...