Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning is a storage management technique that allocates disk space to applications or virtual machines on an as-needed basis, rather than pre-allocating the full requested capacity upfront. It allows for overcommitment of physical storage resources, enabling more efficient utilization by only consuming actual data written. This approach contrasts with thick provisioning, where storage is fully reserved at the time of allocation.
Developers should learn thin provisioning when working with virtualized environments, cloud storage, or large-scale data systems to optimize resource usage and reduce costs. It is particularly useful in scenarios with unpredictable storage growth, such as virtual machine deployments, containerized applications, or development/testing environments, where it minimizes wasted capacity and simplifies storage management.