This white paper explores how information lifecycle management, ILM, is much more than tiered storage or even hierarchical storage management. ILM is a dramatic change in information management, focusing on the value of information and delivering storage services based on management requirements. If this sounds reminiscent of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) approach to systems management, or the IT Governance Institute’s Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (CobiT), they are inextricably linked to one another. Some valuation of the information being managed is a necessity; otherwise, there is the likelihood that everything will be considered “mission- critical.” Equally important are service level objectives that specify how information should be managed and how much information is expected to require management services.

STORAGE SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Storage assets support business processes; it is the business process that dictates availability, business continuity, performance, security, and all other aspects of how storage is budgeted, provisioned, and used. The principles of information lifecycle management help to define those requirements in terms of the ITIL philosophy: