Thin Provisioning
Most storage administrators will allocate 30%-100% extra disk resources per application to allow for growth of the data. It is simply the way we have always prepared for growth or snapshots. However, in doing so, you are lowering the utilization of your storage by as much as 50%!
True thin provisioning completely separates storage ALLOCATION from storage UTILIZATION. This enables the storage administrator to allocate any size virtual volume upfront without taking from the available disk pool. When data is written to the volume, then, and only then is it removed from the available pool of storage. The cost savings are huge!
The cost savings are huge, but they don’t stop with the savings in the amount of disks you need to purchase. Think about secondary benefits of having to buy fewer disks such as less power consumption and fewer disks to cool. It is green technology, but not "slap a green label on it and call it green." Doing more with less power is inherently green. Oh and it saves a bunch of the green backs too.
Utilize ALL of your storage and never search for lost terabytes again.