TECHNIQUES FOR TIGHTLY-INTEGRATING AN ENTERPRISE STORAGE ARRAY INTO A DISTRIBUTED VIRTUALIZED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

Techniques are directed to a cloud-integrated enterprise-class data storage array. It includes (a) an enclosure, (b) a set of storage drives mounted in the enclosure, (c) network interface circuitry mounted in the enclosure, the network interface circuitry communicatively connecting the cloud-integrated enterprise-class data storage array to a network to form a distributed virtualized computing environment, and (d) a redundant set of storage processors mounted in the enclosure. The redundant set of storage processors are configured to (1) process data storage operations directed at the set of storage drives in a highly-available and deterministic manner and (2) operate a cloud storage management node of the distributed virtualized computing environment to manage assignment of logical disks to respective virtual machines of the distributed virtualized computing environment, the logical disks including storage from the set of storage drives. A method and computer program product are also provided.