Tiers also provide immediate access to timely business data so it can be used for internal corporate analytics if needed. Thin provisioning is a method of storage resource management and virtualization that lets IT administrators limit the allocation of actual physical storage to what applications immediately need. It enables the automatic addition of capacity on demand up to pre-set limits so that IT departments can avoid buying and managing excessive amounts of disk storage. Storage tiering and thin-provisioning are not new features; many other companies — established and second-generation — offer them. NetApp, EMC, Compellent, Xiotech, Dell, 3PAR and several others have been selling tiering and thin-provisioning for several years. HP's Virtualized Storage Service can save clients up to 30 percent in costs by maximizing utilization and moving appropriate data to less expensive storage tiers, said Jeff Moyer, HP's Director of Storage Services.