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Strategies Of Information Management
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By: Mohamed Fekry EL-Nakeb
Managing organizational information is becoming one of the major challenges that faces today’s organizations. The value of information rises and falls over time, fluctuating according to business operational cycles; whether those are transactions that generate revenue, bi-weekly payroll processing, quarterly financial reconciliations, or annual tax filings. Even unexpected events such as an audit, an acquisition, a new competitive threat, or a disaster can change the information’s value.
Organizations need to adopt ILM “Information Life Cycle” strategies to be able to acquire process, retain and retrieve their most important resource i.e. “INFORMATION” using the most effective information management technology to match the value of business to Information.
Resource management helps organizations better manage their information, determine what resources should be available to which information, and quickly pinpoint existing and potentially disruptive events within the information infrastructure.
BASIC IDEA:
ILM is a process by which information is moved between different tiers of storage media, to ensure that the service levels required by the business are met at the lowest TCO based on the content of the data. In another words, information is classified based on its value, then it is stored and retained on the applicable storage tier to its value. ILM also progressively automates the storage management process over time, minimizing the risk of human error or interference and optimizing the movement of data between the storage tiers.
THE PRIMARY COMPONENTS OF IML:
- Tiered storage:
Tiered storage applies more than two types of storage media (e.g., fiber channel, SCSI, and ATA).
- Data classification:
Data classification is the process of assigning data into groups or classes that are meaningful to the business.
-Data movement:
Data movement shifts data between storage tiers to satisfy changing service-level requirements based on the content of the data. Ideally, data movement should be an automated process arrived out by intelligent storage management software based on policies defined by the business.
ILM is not a one-time event that addresses all storage management issues, however, it is a program that starts with an assessment of current information management practices, then, establishes priorities for applications and data to which ILM will be applied, and eventually applies the appropriate levels of storage process automation.
IML BENEFITS:
The primary benefit of ILM is maximizing the business value of information while minimizing the TCO. ILM ensures that the data is stored in a service-level tier appropriate to its inherent business value and that it is accessible according to the needs of the business at any point of time in its life cycle.
By reducing the time spent by technical staff finding and manipulating data, ILM can help increase labor productivity and reduce labor costs. At the same time, ILM serves as a useful methodology for controlling the cost of procuring and managing storage systems.
SPECIFIC BENEFITS TO BUSINESS:
• Improving asset utilization through tiered storage platforms.
• Simplifying and automating management of information and infrastructure.
• Offering more cost-effective options for information access, information protection and business continuity.
• Ensuring easy compliance through policy based management.
• Delivering maximum value at the lowest TCO.
TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO MANAGING INFORMATION:
The challenge of traditional information management is that it uses a static approach to manage a changing asset. you may apply equal availability, performance, protection, and compliance levels to all your data, but what if you could match your information management investment with the value each piece of information offers at any point in time? Instead of spending a lot to manage all your information in the same way, you could spend less by offering just the right availability, performance, protection, and compliance for each bit of information at each step in its lifecycle.
That is where Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) role comes in. ILM's main activity is to classify information and applications according to their value to your business, then defining and implementing policies to deliver appropriate service levels and minimize costs. With ILM, you deliver the right level of management at the right time and meet business requirements with the lowest cost possible.
Posted by ROOT Technologies
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