Ask a dozen business and IT colleagues how they define Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), and they’ll give a dozen different answers:
“It’s a fancy industry term for storage.”
“The definition depends on the vendor.”
“Talk to me about ILM when it can actually benefit my business.”
It’s time to set the record straight. HP views ILM as a set of solutions that capture, manage, retain and deliver information throughout its lifecycle, helping companies to leverage information for competitive advantage.
Read this fifth article in our Fact or Myth storage series to learn what ILM can do for your business today.
>>Read the IT view>>Read the business view
MYTH: ILM takes place only in the data center.
FACT: ILM solutions span the enterprise, enabling you to capture, manage, retain and deliver information from the moment it is created until the time it becomes obsolete.
In the early days of digital information, vital business data lived happily within the walls of a physical data center. But the volume of information flowing through the enterprise long ago spilled beyond traditional boundaries. Today, desktops, laptops, handhelds and servers are loaded with a torrent of e-mails, files and database records. And more than 60 percent of corporate data now resides outside the datacenter.
Some types of information demand immediate but infrequent access while others require high availability based on predefined rules. How is an IT department to keep track of it all—especially in the face of flat or shrinking budgets, aging media and applications and increasing regulation?
With integrated ILM solutions, you can store and retrieve information when and how you need it—no matter where it lives. An effective strategy recognizes that the value of information will change over time. Therefore, the strategy incorporates a tiered storage solution to let you automatically move information to a variety of storage tiers of varying cost, performance and data accessibility aligned to your information needs. Understanding the content and application context is key to controlling how information is archived, managed and moved throughout your IT environment.
HP ILM solutions span the lifecycle of information, so you can capture, manage, retain and deliver information according to its relevance and in a way that is consistent with your policies and preferences. For example, HP Output Management Solutions capture information from virtually any source and deliver it to virtually any destination, including print, fax, e-mail, Web or file.
Whatever your specific needs, HP ILM solutions can deliver the right information to the right people in the formats they desire. Say goodbye to needle-in-the-haystack searches, and hello to enterprise-wide visibility and control. A new era of information management is dawning, and the future looks bright indeed.
MYTH: Your business cannot benefit from ILM today.
FACT: ILM solutions are available now to help you reduce costs, meet compliance requirements and capitalize on critical business information to gain competitive advantage.
Information rules in today’s marketplace. And timely access to it can make or break a business. To anticipate infrastructure needs and keep information under control, IT leaders must take a long-term view. But what about the problems you face today?
Already, corporate governance and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and Basel II require companies to retain information for longer periods of time while making the same information accessible as needed.
If you’ve placed ILM on a shelf for future exploration, you may be overlooking solutions that can ease your pain right away. Consider these examples:
Archiving Platform: The HP StorageWorks Reference Information Storage System (RISS) is an active-archiving solution that helps companies implement effective data retention and compliance systems. Automated data migration policies and end-user-initiated information retrievals help lower IT operational costs.
E-mail Archiving: To meet stringent requirements, many companies need the capacity to capture, index, archive, search and retrieve e-mail communications. HP StorageWorks Reference Information Manager (RIM) for Messaging software, used in conjunction with the RISS platform, allows companies to offload the majority of e-mail storage, reducing the number of servers needed and lowering storage costs.
Database Archiving: HP StorageWorks Reference Information Manager for Databases (RIM for DB) manages accelerating data growth by relocating closed transactions and other infrequently accessed data to an online, easily accessed archive database.
File Archiving: HP StorageWorks File System Extender provides cost-effective archive storage for massive amounts of data by moving data automatically and transparently between storage tiers according to rules based on business data needs. Similarly, HP StorageWorks File Migration Agent software is designed to simplify Windows®-based file, Web and application server administration by enabling policy-based migration to popular storage targets.
Medical Archiving: In the health care industry, digital imaging systems generate several terabytes of stored information each day. Medical professionals need immediate access to these images whenever and wherever necessary—often in emergency situations and without violating patient privacy and information confidentiality. The HP Medical Archiving Solution (MAS) provides cost-effective, scalable storage for diagnostic images to help accelerate patient care while complying with ethical and regulatory requirements for privacy and security. With HIPAA regulations, backup of patient records is more important than ever; and HP OpenView Storage Data Protector simplifies complex patient information backup and recovery with fast installation, automation of routine tasks, and easy-to-use features.
ILM is not a single solution, and it involves much more than storage. An integrated strategy incorporates multiple components with one goal in mind: to store critical information efficiently, cost effectively and accurately, based on specific business needs.
With the current portfolio of HP ILM solutions, you can meet the challenge of the moment, then scale and expand capabilities as needs change and technologies evolve. Companies that reduce the cost of managing information while meeting government regulations earn themselves a competitive edge. Those who wait for the future may find they’ve missed the opportunity.
Also see http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/library/GetPage.aspx?pageid=315482&audienceid=0&statusid=0&ccid=225&langid=121&ERL=true&pageTitle=Enterprise%20library:%20Straight%20talk%20on%20ILM
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