Organizations of all sizes are faced with a tidal wave of data coming from a myriad new sources, including sensors, social media, mobile platforms and more. Data has become the new currency of business, their most critical asset. But organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24 percent more storage every year2 , but uses less than half of the capacity it already has3 . To help maximize the benefits of growing amounts of data, many organizations are turning to software-defined storage, which frees data from physical storage and provides better access to applications. There are many ways to benefit from softwaredefined storage. One approach starts with data virtualization, which provides a software layer that helps simplify management. Data virtualization simplifies deployment of new applications and new storage tiers, eases movement of data among tiers,and enables consistent easy-to-use optimization technologies across multiple storage tiers. The IBM® Storwize® family is the primary IBM solution for supporting software-defined storage and virtual infrastructures. IBM® Storwize® V5000, the latest addition to the family, is a virtualized, enterprise-class modular storage system that complements virtual server environments and delivers the flexibility and responsiveness required for changing business needs2 . As an intermediate offering, Storwize V5000 is designed to help consolidate and provide new capabilities to existing storage infrastructures. And because of its flexible licensing options, Storwize V5000 is simple to deploy with complementary storage solutions, such as IBM ProtecTIER®.To help address the block.