Future Trends in Data Lifecycle Management

By Geoff Hough, 3PAR Director of Product Marketing

It has been reported that ILM is so complex, its almost impossible. Even leading storage vendors who advocate ILM as a means of cost optimisation have been known to characterise it as a journey. This begs the question: is cost-effective data lifecycle management just a dream? This review will attempt to answer this question by exploring proposed alternatives for achieving a cost-optimised tiered storage environment. ILM: The Endorsed Champion Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) pertains to classifying information at the information level (e.g. records, messages, files, etc.) and then processing that information according to metadata policies established around those information structures. ILM was originally developed to meet document control and compliance requirements. However, over the past few years traditional storage vendors have co-opted ILM as a strategy for cost optimising storage environments. In these new ILM strategies, original functionality is extended to data movement between tiers of storage devices (each with different price/performance characteristics) in accordance with established metadata policies. Provided all information is properly classified -- by no means a foregone conclusion -- the promise of ILM is a precise and accurate method of costoptimising data over the entire data lifecycle. However ILM was never intended as a means for cost optimising storage environments. As a result, organisations must embrace a high degree of cost and complexity when implementing ILM for storage cost optimisation. ILM requires multiple storage platforms, new processes, and application-specific software for classifying, moving and storing data throughout its lifecycle. Of course, there is no shortage of professional services available to help users implement ILM. After summing these costs and incremental management layers required for precise data classification and movement, some will find that true net cost savings from ILM are small, distant or altogether elusive. Integrated Data Lifecycle Management: An Efficient Alternative? For organisations aiming to reduce their cost of storage, ILM may not be the best or only answer. In fact, an alternative approach called integrated Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) promises to greatly reduce the expense and complexity of achieving dynamic, cost-optimised tiered storage. Integrated DLM can be deployed today and, unlike ILM, was designed specifically for the purpose of cost optimising storage environments. Integrated DLM enables organisations to achieve storage cost-optimisation by consolidating the disk-based data lifecycle onto a single, massively scalable and fully tiered array. The storage infrastructure capable of supporting integrated DLM can also support ILM when and if necessary. For those organisations with strict compliance or regulatory requirements, storage arrays supporting integrated DLM can be deployed in conjunction with ILM for improved storage ROI. The appeal of an integrated DLM strategy relative to traditional ILM-only approaches is the avoidance of multiple devices and device management, large-scale information classification processes and procedures, and application-specific software that add cost and complexity. Because integrated DLM is based on a consolidated storage infrastructure, it enables organisations to utilise common data management and administration tools across and between all service level tiers of storage. Storage arrays capable of supporting integrated DLM also offer non-disruptive volume conversion between data service tiers and the ability to move blocks of data (portions of volumes) to the appropriate service level automatically, based on policies set in and usage patterns observed by the array, for increased flexibility.

What Is Right for Your Organisation? So, how do you determine what is right for your organisation? Consideration must be given to the amount of data, its growth, and the projected data lifecycle as it pertains to each application and the required storage quality of service levels that must be delivered. Therefore, before choosing a storage cost optimisation solution, there are several questions you should ask: What document control and compliance requirements must be considered? As already mentioned, ILM is a logical response for applications where document control and compliance are required. However, if your organisation also requires a cost-optimised storage solution, you will need to decide what tiered storage infrastructure is appropriate. Traditional ILM solutions suggest several independent devices to cover the entire disk-based lifecycle, as well as specialised compliance hardware such as WORM devices if needed. Another choice for the underlying disk-based lifecycle could be storage platforms that support integrated DLM, as a compliment to any compliance hardware or software. Integrated DLM platforms offer consolidated array management and data replication services while reducing fixed costs and enhancing data lifecycle ROI. What additional investment is required? When considering a cost optimisation strategy, it is crucial to add up not just the incremental hardware, software and licensing investment that must be made, but also the cost of implementation and ongoing management. Traditional ILM solutions anticipate a variety of storage devices to meet different levels of performance, availability, capacity and cost. However, with disparate devices and heterogeneity also come greater fixed costs, administrative complexity, and interoperability management. Additionally, there is the need to provision maximum capacity by tier and by application. In other words, to avoid constant manual provisioning and adjusting of capacity, you will need to provision sufficient capacity by tier for the peak amount of data that an application-specific ILM platform may transition through a given tier over a given period of time. Provisioning is not automated through the integration of ILM platforms and proprietary array device managers. In the case of an integrated DLM-capable storage platform, you have the opportunity to consolidate multiple levels of performance, availability, capacity and cost into a single, massively scalable device. This diminishes fixed costs, administrative complexity, and interoperability issues. A storage array that supports integrated DLM can also provide a means of pooling capacity across tiers and applications. Peaks and valleys of capacity demand for various application/tier combinations can be dynamically balanced against one another, saving cost and increasing ROI. How will data movement be handled? Central to any data lifecycle management approach is the way in which data is understood and moved through its lifecycle. These functions are essential to being able to place data onto the right storage tier at the right time in order to achieve optimal cost efficiency. ILM-based approaches examine data at the information level and move related data between storage tiers. As we have seen, much of the savings resulting from this precision (to the extent it can be achieved) can be lost in the cost and complexity of implementing it, and in the blind peak provisioning that must occur. An integrated DLM storage platform offers two forms of data movement between tiers of storage: at the volume level and at sub-volume level. In each case, what may be lost in precision, relative to ILM approaches that manage to deliver effective data classification, is made up for through the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of implementing a single (not multiple) movement scheme, and the substantial reduction in capacity from pooling capacity across applications and tiers. In the case of volume level movement, highly virtualised integrated DLM platforms provide a simple and non-disruptive method for converting the underlying service level of a given volume (e.g., disk type, RAID level, stripe width, etc.) This translates into a dynamic and flexible solution with no

heavy up-front planning and provisioning and no incremental host, fabric or array-based migration facilities. In the case of sub-volume level movement, a storage array for integrated DLM takes advantage of knowing when specific blocks of data were originally written and observing usage patterns thereafter. This adaptive provisioning functionality automatically moves blocks of data to the appropriate service levels (up or down) within the same volume at the appropriate time according to policy. Such an approach provides exceptional capacity utilisation, very granular data lifecycle management, and low administrative overhead. Conclusion Of course, users must assess their own requirements carefully and select appropriate solutions. This review has provided some core considerations for those looking forward to implementing data lifecycle management. The good news for some is that an integrated DLM strategy may not be such a remote or costly proposition after all. ~~~~ 3PAR Overview 3PAR is the leading provider of Utility Storage, a simple, efficient and scalable tiered-storage array for utility computing that lets customers serve more with less. 3PAR Utility Storage can cut an organization's Total Cost of Data by 50%. Capacity purchases and related costs can be cut up to 75% while storage administration and associated expenses can be reduced up to 90%. 3PAR Utility Storage is ideal for open systems storage consolidation, integrated data lifecycle management and performance-intensive applications. Well positioned with key strategic investors including Oracle, Sun, and VERITAS, 3PAR has been operating successfully for the past six years and has been serving enterprise customers since 2002. Find out more at www.3par.com.