Information lifecycle management: mastering complexity.

The key to efficient data and storage management lies with a simple principle: information has a lifecycle and it should only be stored as long as required by business and regulatory requirements. However, the traditional methods of administration do not suffice for the complex relationships among structured and unstructured data. New generations of solutions are evolving to meet business leaders' needs while reducing operational risk, meeting regulatory compliance, and improving system availability.

However, like every quantum change with strategic and operational management, reality is not keeping pace with the expectations of individuals and organizations that demand a quick, yet simple, solution to a very complex and growing problem. To further complicate matters, new terminology is being introduced, additional skill sets are required, products are immature, and the financial impact of implementation is empirically only just being understood with the first generation of products. This ambiguity has a potential to derail a robust framework that has the ability to deliver on historically unmet needs required for our ever-expanding, informationdependent industries.

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ILM: Not Just Another Priority

The integration and dissemination of information is not simply reserved for large enterprises; it has become a mandate driven by shareholders, boards of directors, government regulators, and employees. Information Lifecycle Management is not just about managing storage--it is about using information assets from "cradle to grave." While it is a complex issue, the benefits of achieving ILM are recognized as improving ROI, reducing operating costs (i.e., TCO), increasing information availability, and promoting productivity among the employees. Simply stated, ILM is about the process of the information's lifecycle.

However, to achieve a viable solution with a realistic return, organizations must understand the company's critical business needs before selecting a technological solution or vendor. The enterprise needs are no longer limited to managing structured data from disparate, yet highly interfaced operational application systems. Today's business requirements are driven by high-tech VoIP contact centers, instant messaging, content intelligence, unstructured data, global outsourcing, culturally diverse workforces, and stratifications of data. These needs concentrate on the integration and synthesis of complex data sources and uses, not just the implementation of a SAN, processor, or software for Sarbanes-Oxley.

Justification of ILM

The solution to active and automated administration has been elusive for nearly 30 years. The root problems remain and they are growing more pronounced and visible with increasing government regulations, shareholder suits, employee turnover and rising litigation. As articulated by senior management, business justification for ILM as a solution to these core troubles includes:

* The globalization of markets--it is more than managing domestic information or personnel

* Government requirements are increasing at a compounded rate of 10-15% per year

* Compliance efforts being viewed as a series of "one-offs" are unrelated and seldom leveraged

* Reporting that is focused at a department-by-department level

* Lack of consistency when capturing data leads to multiple copies of the truth

* Information retrieval is time consuming and expensive

* Operational and archiving systems cannot meet stringent requirements needed for legal discovery and submission--lack of scrutiny

* No enterprise examination of the larger problem--management is distracted by trying to run the business

* Internal skill sets are few, dwindling, and stretched thin

Compliance has become a catalyst for ILM. With the current market offerings, organizations are dealing with a patchwork quilt of point solutions that require significant integration efforts. Moreover, there are the challenges of dealing with a legacy of products, skills, and business justifications that have been left over from historical innovation and adoption (Figure 2).

To meet the needs of the business and for the mobile, quality-focused customer base, embracing a comprehensive approach to deal with the over 50% yearly increase in data storage must be met with a pragmatic, yet compartmentalized ILM method.

The issues and challenges facing business and technical managers are not contained within the back office of IT. These risks and liabilities now reside within the executive suite and must be addressed using non-traditional ap-proaches and a hierarchy of storage solutions. A corporation's market and credit risk will be directly affected by its ability to deal with simultaneous outages, multi-faceted reporting, and operational tracking and hazards on an international basis. As a result, business continuity, availability and ILM are coupled. ILM has been spawned from business needs and a corporate mandate to deliver an innovative, comprehensive and expandable solution now and the future.

"Know Thy Data ..."

Achieving measurable and sustainable ILM results is hard work. The process starts with a clear understanding of the sources and uses of the corporate information: its standardization, replication, migration, summarization and integrity. Additionally, ILM is an emerging solution that mandates a strong business commitment, advanced planning and a baselining of application characteristics. The following are challenges faced by organizations embracing ILM.

ILM requires management commitment outside of IT driven by the business and not just on technical merits. Painstaking efforts are needed to ensure proper sponsorship is achieved before deciding on products or preferred vendors. Sustaining the initiative for the long-term requires full integration with business and IT plans. Failure to achieve proper integration dooms the effort to be short-lived, unsustainable and a financial liability.

ILM involves blending initiatives and projects into a cohesive program of work. ILM is a series of tightly integrated projects that form an interconnected delivery model that can be achieved and measured one component at a time. It cannot be approached as an ERP or CRM initiative, which consumes untold resources and several years of slow results. ILM is a series of steps that takes advantage of and is integrated with organizational initiatives such as compliance, business continuity, organizational process, and storage management.

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ILM cannot be satisfied with a single piece of hardware or software. It requires a collaborative solution "stack" of products and services all focused on the life-cycle process. An example of this practical approach to ILM can be seen with storage leader EMC Corporation. EMC has not only recognized that the market is shifting radically towards an integrated stack of products, but also that all these products and services cannot be deployed or benefits realized in a single implementation endeavor. Their approach is iterative and comprises products and services that form a holistic offering while leveraging the obligatory interoperability found within today's heterogeneous computing environments. The selection of a viable, strategic partner is critical for sustainability and "ever-greening" of ILM solutions. Choose wisely to avoid vendor lock-in, product end-of-life and elevated total cost of ownership (TCO).

ILM requires data cleansing and active management of information (e.g., sources and uses). This area is one of the most underestimated and forgotten of ILM activities. While tremendous efforts and technologies have been deployed, the failure to achieve a solid data foundation contributes significantly to ILM difficulties. At a minimum, data cleansing must take place within operational systems and data warehouses, and selected archival information must be used for compliance reporting.

The limiting factors with current administration products begin with the specificity of detail and consistency of data captured. ILM is the missing key to unlocking corporate benefits for many of the highest funded and most important organizational initiatives. However, who in today's market has the roadmap to make it a reality? Where should you start? How do you ensure that ILM is not just another empty promise of technology?

Getting Started

The path to embarking upon an ILM strategy clearly starts with an architecture that combines stand-alone segmentation while providing for ongoing integration and expansion. With the organizational commitment and alignment behind the ILM effort, how do you marshal the resources and plans needed to make it a reality? A proven strategy for ILM realization is "think big, start small."

First, a current baseline must be conducted. This baseline should articulate and quantify the existing technologies, procedures and policies already adopted by the company. The baseline also must classify available personnel skill sets, organizational maturity, and operational windows needed to satisfy the existing SLAs. With the foundation in place, known issues, risks and current initiatives must be classified and ranked by significance.

Secondly, the future state or "to-be" model must be created. Clear benefits driven by the business drivers and corporate agendas (i.e., alignment) must be integrated to create a cohesive framework that meets the organizational goals and objectives. With the "to-be" model defined and approved, a fit-gap analysis can be done that articulates the problem areas, opportunities and architectonic strengths. After creating a program of work, a high-level design of the product and services should be developed. This design will highlight the estimated benefits, potential vendors, proposed implementation scenarios and sequence of activities that will result in a working set of pilots.

With the selection of key vendors, pilot projects can be undertaken. These pilot projects will provide the confirmation for the benefits, risks and approach needed for further investment. Once completed, the results will be a "go/no-go" decision point for the organization, and additional commitment and investments for ILM realization. Adjustments also will be made from the pilot project's outcome to the plan, resources and budgets.

With the pilot projects and customizations completed, a rollout plan for the tested environment will be undertaken. Only segments mature in their lifecycle will be considered. Proper training and education will be conducted. A refresh approach to integrate future segments will be defined and integrated into the existing PMO, methods, and architecture.

By its very nature, ILM is not static. It is a layered and integrated series of product, processes and storage automation that can result in drastically improved information availability, usage and bottom-line results. Many companies today are unwittingly practicing ILM--using inefficient, manual processes contained within vendor-specific platforms resulting in a high TCO. A viable solution for organizational profitability, cost containment and risk mitigation is contained within the ILM architecture. Over the next two to three years, the robustness of the products will rapidly advance in support of the architecture allowing for significant improvements in storage innovation, productivity gains (due to automated rules and policies) and compliance administration.

What's Next?

While caveats to ILM exist, the business drivers for its integration and implementation cannot be ignored. Organizations seeking to deploy these enterprise-based solutions must consider that the potential currently outweighs a vendor's ability to make it a reality in the short term. However, the enterprise must identify the critical requirements and embrace the key strategies while the market is maturing. Identifying and embracing the vital requirements and strategies will take time and executive commitment, which is usually greater than the time required for delivery.

The offerings deployed today will significantly mature in 2004/2005 as they are assimilated into common applications, databases, middleware, and storage management. ILM is not just about storage management, it is about proper alignment with business needs to effectively ensure the capture, categorization, integration and disposal of data.

The key to the information management "hydra" lies with in effective, qualitative and quantitative risk administration coupled with a clear understanding of the data interrelationships between project efforts. Without an active ILM approach aligned to the organizational culture, the measured value (real or perceived) of technology investments will continue to be disappointing while exposing the organization to increased litigation and scrutiny.

Mark P. Dangelo is a recognized international leader in business continuity, compliance, and IT restructuring, and has been a pioneer of ILM and continuous availability.

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