ILM: the next wave.

ILM is the latest paradigm-shifting concept to come out of the storage market, and is being viewed by IT managers as a valuable technology to manage data. As much as 80% of an organization's unstructured data is infrequently accessed, making it a prime target for migration to tape, which would provide the following benefits:

* Tape media is at least 50% less costly than disk capacity

* With 80% of the primary capacity freed up, the organization may not have to add new disk devices for several years

* Tape libraries require far less power and cooling resources than disk arrays, and still require less footprint in the data center

* With 80% of your data already on tape for the long term, the amount of data subject to daily and weekly backups will be significantly reduced.

In evaluating ILM implementation, enterprises should keep the following in mind:

Data Classification: The key to a successful ILM implementation will be determining which files go where and when to build the policies that will automate the process. These policies must be business related, reflecting the nature and character of the business that's being supported. Given the hundreds of applications and the range of lifecycle parameters required for each, creating a process for classifying and tagging data files will be a daunting task.

Interoperability: Vendors are offering new products to take advantage of the ILM model and seeking testing to assure its compatibility with others. It will take time for vendors to integrate and test storage hardware and software from other vendors, so "all-in-one" solutions may be a better investment for now.

Proprietary Metadata: It is important to look at the way the data is stored and indexed within the ILM environment. While there are standards available today for interoperability of devices, and new standards are being implemented for storage management, there are no standards for data management. Understanding the implications of using a proprietary data management system, and planning around it, should help to avoid a costly disaster a few years from now.

Legacy Data Conversion: Be sure that an ILM solution will be able to address the vast majority of your data--the data that's already stored in your storage network. Some ILM solutions only work with new data and can only bring empty storage resources into their environments. You will need a plan to migrate your legacy data into the new system, and for freeing up you existing resources so they can be added to the ILM pool.

ILM will change the way organizations retain data for the long term and allow such data to be kept in secure automated tape libraries. Data management standards will be driven with the assistance of the industry professionals to define ILM metadata, and vendor alliances and partnerships will continue to evolve to develop heterogeneous ILM solutions.