Strategic storage imperatives

Information technology is the lifeblood of any business, espe- cially today when organizational performance depends on information on demand. Business accountability hinges on it, laws and regulations mandate it, customers demand it and effective business processes rely on it. With information on demand, businesses can respond quickly with the ﬂexibility to meet customer requirements, market opportunities or external threats. But as utterly valuable as information on demand has become, it also has become more costly to store, maintain and protect.

A comprehensive approach to the challenges of providing information on demand

To meet these challenges, IBM® has taken a holistic approach to the problem, looking well beyond storage products alone to help you share, manage and protect your data. To provide complete solutions for businesses using the on demand model, IBM has addressed three areas of IT.

Infrastructure simpliﬁcation

Few would question the statement that IT infrastructures have grown more complex in recent years. The dramatic growth in the use of IT, combined with distributed computing architec- tures, is part of the reason. But business processes have also become more complex and integrated too, driving a greater need for complex interconnections among systems.

The added complexity that accompanies growth can stand in the way of fully realizing the beneﬁts of IT. Infrastructure simpli- ﬁcation is a way to look at the entire IT operation and help eliminate the complexity that can raise costs, reduce reliability and create dependencies on specialized skills—factors making it harder to operate as an on demand business.

Three proven methods for simplifying an IT infrastructure are consolidation, virtualization and automated management. Each technique can be applied to all areas that compose an IT operation—servers, storage and networks.

Within the storage arena, consolidation can include reducing the number of data centers and sharing fewer large-capacity storage systems among a greater number of application servers. Consolidated resources can cost less and can be easier to share and protect.

Storage virtualization involves a shift in thinking from physical to logical—treating storage as a logical pool of resources, not individual devices. Not only can this help simplify the storage environment, but it also can help increase utilization and availability.

The storage arena is ripe with opportunities to lower adminis- trative costs through automation. Once tasks are automated, administrators can deal with more strategic issues. In addition, automation can help reduce errors and contribute to higher system performance.

Business continuity

On demand businesses rely on their IT systems to conduct business. Everything must be working all the time. Nothing less is acceptable. A sound and comprehensive business con- tinuity strategy encompasses high availability, near continuous operations and disaster recovery. For each of these areas, the IBM TotalStorage® Resiliency Family includes a comprehensive set of products that are compatible with multiple platforms.

Information lifecycle management

The primary goal of information lifecycle management (ILM) techniques is to optimize the storage and management of information based on its value to your business. An ILM process can help a business maximize the value of informa- tion, from the moment of its creation to the moment of its dis- posal. Corporate governance policies, business processes and compliance guidelines all inﬂuence ILM policies.

The primary capabilities from IBM that support ILM include optimized storage environments with tiered storage platforms, policy-based retention management software, content and records management applications, and non-erasable, non- rewritable media. The potential beneﬁts to your business include improved risk management, optimum storage utiliza- tion, better handling of compliance issues and lower costs.