Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Analysis: Information Lifecycle Management: Page 2 of 29

Hard Row To Hoe

We won't sugarcoat it. There are currently no unified ILM systems. You can get some of the way there by pulling together e-mail archiving tools and their file-management and database counterparts, and by developing a comprehensive policy that defines the business value of your data--structured, e-mail and files--so you can manage it in a way that's commensurate with its current worth. But to hit an ILM bull's-eye requires technologies that just aren't here yet, like sophisticated data-classification engines.

Can you just sit tight? Unless you have minimal data-storage needs and are in a relatively unregulated industry, probably not. Sure, disk is still cheap, but retention rules combined with thousand-fold increases in file sizes--witness the 2-KB WordPerfect letter of 10 years ago versus the 2-MB Microsoft Word file of today--have pushed all but the smallest companies to the breaking point.

It doesn't need to be that way. The journey to ILM isn't easy, but it is proving worthwhile: In our reader poll for this article, three out of four respondents with production ILM initiatives enjoyed easier management of primary systems and were spending less on high-end disks. See nwcanalytics.com in March for complete poll results and an in-depth ILM market analysis.

Finally, Movement