StorageTek adds ILM offerings
Firm pledges to remove 'hype and myth' at Forum conference
StorageTek has continued to beat the Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) drum and add further strings to its virtualisation and online systems bow.
At its annual Forum conference in San Antonio last week, the vendor, which claims it invented the term ILM, said it had just celebrated its 35th birthday, making it almost 15 years older than storage rivals.
Pat Martin, StorageTek's chief executive, told delegates that technology continues to become ever more complex. He said that although the cost of storage is dropping that won't continue indefinitely, whereas the amount of data will continue to grow.
Martin also said he hoped that this year's Forum would remove the "hype and myth" that still surround ILM.
John Benson, vice-president and general manager automated tape solutions at StorageTek, defined ILM as "putting the right information on the right solution at the right time".
Benson said this was why the vendor launched its FlexLine online storage systems for disk-based infrastructure, virtualisation for open systems and a new tape library.
Most analysts agree that ILM is a repackaged version of older concepts such as hierarchical storage management, but still see it as the future of storage.
Thomas Coughlin, president of consultancy Coughlin Associates, said that although ILM has a long history, it has developed.
"The concept of using storage appropriately and being able to use different types of storage devices for different data, coupled with the need for proper utilisation and cost effectiveness have driven ILM," he said.
Coughlin added that he has seen firms implementing ILM strategies because of a growing need to use existing resources and save money.
"Storage needs to become more conscious of its contents. Being able to retrieve data is paramount, and keeping track of all that stored information is where the next opportunity lies," Coughlin said.