From the wonderful world of Wikipedia:
Storage Virtualization

refers to the process of completely abstracting logical storage from physical storage, and is commonly used in SANs. The physical storage resources are aggregated into storage pools, from which the logical storage is created. Multiple independent storage devices, which may be scattered over a network, appear to the user as a single, location-independent, monolithic storage device, which can be managed centrally.

I have, in the past, worked for a virtualization company as a database administrator, coder, and data modeler. I can honestly say these guys really have to know there stuff as it is no easy task to snif and maintain viable abstracted information from physical resources. Just try and remember the first time you partitioned a disk on Linux or created a LUN across multiple disks. How much faith did you have to have? Now, add in networks and 100% stress tablets. You just might live. :)

If this is all too new to you, or you want to learn more...obviously stay tuned to this blog. But you can also visit the Virtualization Expo website or I might suggest a book by Tom Clark entitled Storage Virtualization

AND, if you have what it takes, the Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 West is still open for its Call for Papers.