"We can provision in less than a day now versus a couple of weeks to physically set everything up before," says Pollack. "The built-in data-migration engines and data-processing engines of the Multi-protocol Router add more intelligence than the typical switch, as they allow us to move data around more effectively."

Pollack offers a virtual tape library (VTL) as an example. Instead of having to deploy one VTL per disk array or SAN, AOL can now share a VTL across arrays at all three sites. This has helped eliminate backup bottlenecks on large servers by moving traffic from Ethernet to Fibre Channel.

Application Intelligence

Much of the excitement around intelligent switches to date has centered on transportation. That's changing, though, as the demands of ILM force the integration of more application-rich features. The creation of multiple classes of data delivery and multiple zones of virtualized storage, for example, lets users deploy the SAN in alignment with business needs without having to add more hardware or software elements.

Take the case of storage security. Software-based encryption can exact a performance penalty, but deploying encryption appliances across a SAN doesn't always scale well and can be expensive. An intelligent switching platform, on the other hand, can add encryption across a SAN without encountering problems with scaling, and it can keep costs from escalating.