Information Lifecycle Management: The Framework For Smart Storage Decisions
Business Issues
With 600 terabytes of data stored in automated tape libraries, 124 terabytes in vaulted tape and nearly 60 terabytes of data online, StorageTek's IT department faces hefty storage challenges.
Add to that the increase in e-mail data that StorageTek like other companies is experiencing. IDC estimates the number of business e-mails will grow by an averageof 29 percent yearly between 2002 and 2007. With the proliferation of attachments, the data within those-mails is projected to increase 92 percent each year.
For this and other reasons, data at StorageTek grew by more than 100 percent each year during the late 1990s.
Solutions
StorageTek's Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)is a framework for managing the flood of information,while lowering costs and improving the efficiency of storage operations. ILM is based on two concepts:the business decisions customers make about their information and the changing value of that information over time. There is no good reason to store less valuable,aging information on the same storage device as more valuable, new information especially when a range of devices exists and that range provides secure datastorage, acceptable data recall times and different price points.
Financial Benefits
Many of StorageTek's IT ILM solutions take advantageof high-capacity tape resources and tape automation for the simple reason that tape has proven to be a cost effective alternative to disk for those applications that require long-term access and data retention. When the company analyzed total cost of ownership between tape and disk devices, purchase price was only one part ofthe equation. But it was a big part. Disk costs reached $44 per gigabyte, while tape costs hovered between $2 and $5 per gigabyte. ILM provides a range of storage solutions so the right data can be stored on the right device at the right cost.
Business Benefits
By identifying what their data is worth at a given point intime, StorageTek can balance the cost of supplying immediate access against the value such access provides the company.
Applying the principles of ILM helps ensure appropriate use of corporate resources. It also is a tool that can be used to decrease the complexity of the data center environment, which cuts support costs, makes StorageTek more efficient with their storage resources, slashes backup processing times and increases the data integrity the company supplies to its users.
Technology Benefits
With ILM, StorageTek's IT department has embraced a flexible framework to solve the problems of burgeoning data growth, skilled personnel shortages and shrinking budgets.