Business Intelligence Lowdown: Information Lifecycle Management

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February 15, 2006

Information Lifecycle Management

With the need to store virtually every item of data nearly forever, and the rising costs of data storage and maintenance, Information lifecycle management (ILC) is becoming an increased concern for organizations today. ILM is the process by which data is classified and sorted according to it worth to the business. The data so classified is then stored, managed and protected according to its importance.

Though ILM brings with it the benefits reduced storage costs, maximized utilization, minimized redundancy, and security in regulatory compliance situations, the process is often ambiguous and difficult to implement. This is because the definition of the value of data is a complex process, as data keeps changing with time. The criticality of data, its frequency of access, and the length of time it needs to be stored are factors that contribute to the calculation of its value.

ILM is a continuous process that can only be improved, never complete, according to Cliff Dutton, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Ibis Consulting, Inc., a provider of electronic discovery and compliance solutions. The concept of cataloguing and classifying huge volumes of data is too daunting a task to attempt, so organizations are better off identifying the subset of data that is critical to business processes and has certain meaning.

Though technologies like HSM software, content management systems, virtualization tools, e-mail/database archiving products, backup software, SATA arrays and content-addressable storage arrays help in the discovery, classification, storage, archival, and automatic movement of data, the ILM decision should focus on the business policies of the organization rather than the ILM infrastructure.

The most time-consuming and laborious part of the ILM strategy is the definition of the business requirements for data storage and protection, says Dutton. By delineating the goal of the organization in implementing ILM, be it disaster recovery, business continuity, regulatory compliance, or meeting service level agreements with external or internal clients, a decision can be reached on how much money should be spent.

Today, the term ILM is being used more to describe the implementation of good management practices to reduce costs, says Jim Damoulakis, CTO at Glasshouse Technologies.

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February 15, 2006 in Data Warehousing | Permalink