The key is asking the right questions in your requests for proposals (RFPs) and requiring vendors to provide measurable proof that they can deliver on these new agile IT criteria.

* Seamless scaling. Deliver on-demand scaling of capacity and I/O performance with operational efficiency.

* Storage efficiency. Reduce the cost of infrastructure with space-saving replication, point-in-time snapshots, , compression, , media optimization, and performance optimization of low-cost SATA disk.

* Virtual storage tiering. Anticipate and manage to performance needs by automating transparent data movement based on application affinity and workload.