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The Impact of Storage on Application Performance

Infrastructures have come a long way in the last five years, but one device that is lagging behind is storage arrays.

Sure, arrays are faster and easier to configure, but with applications riding on top of virtualization using shared storage, arrays are often the hidden cause of application performance issues.

These issues are often difficult to pinpoint because the symptoms are often transient. The true problem is several levels away from the symptoms, and most monitoring tools can only look at parts of the problem, making diagnosis very difficult. 

How do IT professionals tell if they have a storage performance issue?

Generally, users should watch several key performance indicators (KPI) on both their applications and systems:

Server and Application

At this level, users need to monitor latency and determine how long their application is waiting on storage to return data. For example, Microsoft recommends that storage for Exchange return data in 20 milliseconds or less, or it could negatively affect the application. 

Virtualization

For VMware and other hypervisors, the big issue here is that storage can be a shared resource. Contention can arise as VMs fight for storage I/O, therefore users need to pay attention to latency and total I/O for VM and datastores but with consideration of the CPU and network load as well – high latency with low I/O could be a host issue. If contention is suspected at the hypervisor level, it typically can be solved by moving VMs or moving to faster storage.

Note that VMware vSphere 5 includes Storage vMotion to help smooth some of these issues, but there is only so much it can do before the user will need to step in.

Storage

Arrays vary in their architectures and capabilities, but in general, users need to monitor LUNs and RAID Groups to look for contention in the array and controllers and ports for overloading.

If a user is experiencing high application latency, but doesn't see any problem at the server or hypervisor level, there may be contention in the array as LUNs vie for storage I/O. If more than one LUN shares a set of disks, then a completely unrelated application could be affecting performance, an issue that would be clearly visible at the array level.

Overloaded controllers or ports will generally slow down all the applications on those LUNs, making part of the infrastructure seem sluggish. The remedy is generally reconfiguring the loads to different disks, ports or controllers. 

Storage performance is one of the big challenges for application administrators today, especially since diagnosis is not always simple. It's important to have tools that can dive into different domains (server, app, virtualization, storage) and dive deep to get to the heart of the issue.

As a final note, planning goes a long way in avoiding storage issues (as with anything else). It is critical to measure or estimate average and peak I/O loads of applications and then place them on the appropriate "tier" of storage. Spending time up front to account for the expected loads (and growth) will help everyone sleep better at night.  

About Jonathan Reeve

Jonathan Reeve, Senior Director of Product Management at SolarWinds, has built a career integrating hands-on technical development with senior-level strategic management. Having previously served as the VP of Product Strategy for Hyper9, Reeve was responsible for the company's flagship product, Virtual Environment Optimization suite. His experience spans computer networking, systems management and virtualization technologies, helping numerous start-ups and established companies generate market traction. Prior to joining Hyper9, Reeve drove product management for the network management product line at Smarts, which was acquired by EMC in 2005. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Computer Networking from the University of Durham (UK).

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The Impact of Storage on Application Performance

Infrastructures have come a long way in the last five years, but one device that is lagging behind is storage arrays.

Sure, arrays are faster and easier to configure, but with applications riding on top of virtualization using shared storage, arrays are often the hidden cause of application performance issues.

These issues are often difficult to pinpoint because the symptoms are often transient. The true problem is several levels away from the symptoms, and most monitoring tools can only look at parts of the problem, making diagnosis very difficult. 

How do IT professionals tell if they have a storage performance issue?

Generally, users should watch several key performance indicators (KPI) on both their applications and systems:

Server and Application

At this level, users need to monitor latency and determine how long their application is waiting on storage to return data. For example, Microsoft recommends that storage for Exchange return data in 20 milliseconds or less, or it could negatively affect the application. 

Virtualization

For VMware and other hypervisors, the big issue here is that storage can be a shared resource. Contention can arise as VMs fight for storage I/O, therefore users need to pay attention to latency and total I/O for VM and datastores but with consideration of the CPU and network load as well – high latency with low I/O could be a host issue. If contention is suspected at the hypervisor level, it typically can be solved by moving VMs or moving to faster storage.

Note that VMware vSphere 5 includes Storage vMotion to help smooth some of these issues, but there is only so much it can do before the user will need to step in.

Storage

Arrays vary in their architectures and capabilities, but in general, users need to monitor LUNs and RAID Groups to look for contention in the array and controllers and ports for overloading.

If a user is experiencing high application latency, but doesn't see any problem at the server or hypervisor level, there may be contention in the array as LUNs vie for storage I/O. If more than one LUN shares a set of disks, then a completely unrelated application could be affecting performance, an issue that would be clearly visible at the array level.

Overloaded controllers or ports will generally slow down all the applications on those LUNs, making part of the infrastructure seem sluggish. The remedy is generally reconfiguring the loads to different disks, ports or controllers. 

Storage performance is one of the big challenges for application administrators today, especially since diagnosis is not always simple. It's important to have tools that can dive into different domains (server, app, virtualization, storage) and dive deep to get to the heart of the issue.

As a final note, planning goes a long way in avoiding storage issues (as with anything else). It is critical to measure or estimate average and peak I/O loads of applications and then place them on the appropriate "tier" of storage. Spending time up front to account for the expected loads (and growth) will help everyone sleep better at night.  

About Jonathan Reeve

Jonathan Reeve, Senior Director of Product Management at SolarWinds, has built a career integrating hands-on technical development with senior-level strategic management. Having previously served as the VP of Product Strategy for Hyper9, Reeve was responsible for the company's flagship product, Virtual Environment Optimization suite. His experience spans computer networking, systems management and virtualization technologies, helping numerous start-ups and established companies generate market traction. Prior to joining Hyper9, Reeve drove product management for the network management product line at Smarts, which was acquired by EMC in 2005. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Computer Networking from the University of Durham (UK).

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...