StorageTek aggressively targets ILM

The storage major has unveiled a range of new products and product enhancements to bolster its Information Lifecycle Management strategy, which forms the crux of the company’s storage vision, says Gaurav Patra

It’s been more than a year since StorageTek started talking about its Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) initiative. The storage services and solutions company has now outlined some definite strategic initiatives for India. StorageTek has put a lot of emphasis on the ILM segment, being a storage-only company offering solutions and products on an independent basis.

“We have been working to deliver value to our customers. We are now focusing on delivering ILM solutions that will help businesses effectively manage the flow of business-critical information running through their organisations,” says Vijay Pradhan, general manager, StorageTek India.

But why is StorageTek so keen to propagate ILM? “Today, enterprises need a way to balance the exponential growth of data with a right approach to collect, move, share, store and protect their information,” explains Pradhan. He explains that customers are extremely receptive of the ILM idea and they find a lot of value in it. “ILM is all about the flow of information. This is what has got customers thinking about ILM in terms of analysing information. ILM basically creates a framework in which one can analyse information flow; this ultimately drives the adoption of ILM,” says Pradhan.

The company has unveiled a range of products targeting the ILM space. It offers products in the high-speed, high-performance disk area, in the medium-scale disk space, and in the tape space as well. The StreamLine SL8500 is the first offering in StorageTek’s family of modular library solutions that build on the company’s expertise in automated tape and broaden its current portfolio of ILM options. The SL8500 Modular Library System and reference architectures built around its ILM strategy demonstrates the company’s commitment to solve customer business issues.

It has also launched a new modular product, the D240, in its D-Series family of mid-range disk subsystems, in competition with the likes of EMC’s Clarion range and IBM’s TotalStorage FastT storage systems. The company has also launched the T9840C, which is the third-generation of its fast-access, automated tape system. Sitting below StorageTek’s larger D178 and D280 storage systems, the D240 comes with 2 Gbps fibre channel connectivity, as well as storage management capabilities that were previously available only in higher-end products. These data replication features, which include SnapShot, Internal Volume Copy, and Remote Volume Mirroring, are part of StorageTek’s SANtricity Storage Manager software version 8.4. Pradhan says that these products, along with those expected to follow, will provide customers with a comprehensive data management solution. The company offers a range of solutions for the ILM framework: D-Series products, B-Series or Blade Store, and L-Series (library products).

It’s not a secret that storage needs are growing very rapidly. The whole concept of the Internet, e-learning and e-governance is all about referencing information. Keeping this in mind, the company is also delivering a number of reference architectures built on its ILM strategy. These comprise StorageTek solutions and third-party products, including Mainframe Archiving, Open Systems Archiving and Open Systems Data Protection. Some of the solutions include MirrorStore, EchoView and Storage Management software for mainframe environments.

Pradhan feels that ILM is relevant for those segments that manage large amounts of data. Verticals like telecom, banking, insurance and e-governance are going to drive the company’s ILM business in India. “Apart from this, in India technology is a big segment for us. A number of companies here provide software services globally and there is significant pressure on them to protect customer data. When we look at the technology space, it is going to be using ILM as the base framework on which they will build the storage architecture,” he says.

HP, Hitachi and EMC are also talking about ILM. HP has evolved a strategy that has been gaining momentum in the storage industry. Sensing that ILM is increasingly become a buzzword since federal regulations (in the US) have become more stringent, HP is taking a holistic approach to ILM, which it claims is better than the approach of vendors such as EMC, Veritas and IBM. While EMC and Veritas treat ILM as a storage-oriented issue, IBM focuses on hierarchical storage management. HP sees ILM as a function of overall business processes in an enterprise.

HP will supply its own products, including hardware, as well as its storage resource management software, in the package. The new ILM push is the latest facet of the company’s wide-ranging Adaptive Enterprise strategy to meet changing business requirements on-the-fly.

On the other hand, EMC feels that data storage requires evolutionary technologies, not revolutionary ones. Bolstered by a range of acquisitions that have filled its storage management software and data archiving gaps, EMC is highlighting its plan for ILM, which is the next step following the solidification of its automated network storage plan. EMC treats ILM as a process in which an organisation’s data storage requirements are matched with proper storage assets to manage information from the time it is created to the time it is disposed of.

Pradhan says that StorageTek’s approach is different from that of all its competitors. “We operate in the entire storage segment. We are the only storage company that operates in both automated storage and tapes. When we look at the customer’s storage requirements, we are able to build for him an architecture environment,” he says. In the days to come, StorageTek will derive its business both from the disc and tape segments. In addition, the company’s emphasis will be on data protection through replication and backup solutions.

gaurav@expresscomputeronline.com