Insight on business and technical issues that affect storage decisions

Comprehensive Comparison of Tape and Disk Archives - JUN 2005
At first glance, disk storage media costs seem more attractive (prices have dropped as much as 30 percent annually). But when storage media, hardware, maintenance and personnel are factored in, the total cost of tape can be approximately one-half the cost of a similarly configured disk solution. Ultimately, a combination of both technologies may prove to be a more cost-effective and appropriate long-term storage solution.

The Role of Tape Automation in information lifecycle management (ILM) - JUN 2005
Tape automation is one of the key elements of the information lifecycle management infrastructure today, and it will be for the foreseeable future.

Optimizing Storage Capacity - JUN 2005
Reduce storage costs by reserving your most expensive storage for your most critical data.

Information lifecycle management vision - MAY 2005
Information lifecycle management has been widely discussed without the formalization of a clear and compelling vision. This paper describes the StorageTek vision for information lifecycle management, defines the keys to attaining it and provides some insight into how current decisions will facilitate or inhibit attainment of the vision.

Best practices in information lifecycle management for private sector compliance - MAY 2005
Compliance is a significant component of a successful information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy. An ILM approach to addressing compliance can help you meet compliance requirements at the lowest possible cost. Understanding compliance issues and implementing compliance best practices within an ILM framework can help you reduce business risk while improving your competitive advantage.

Information lifecycle management maturity model - APR 2005
Information lifecycle management (ILM) has been widely hyped in the storage industry without a clearly understood vision or a defined approach to implementation. Information lifecycle management’s stated value is compelling, but clear steps toward implementation are required. Our proposed information lifecycle management maturity model defines an achievable roadmap to the information lifecycle management vision.

Best practices in data classification for information lifecycle management - JAN 2005
Data classification is a key underlying activity that enables an economically feasible implementation of ILM. The initiative can reap significant business rewards, enabling a business to be more agile and competitive. Doing it right counts.

Measuring the total cost of ownership of tape storage solutions - OCT 2004
Understanding TCO of any solution requires developing a framework and methodology. This paper presents a framework and financial methodology for deciding whether or not an enterprise should replace its current ("Status Quo") tape storage solution with a new ("Proposed") solution and the economics related to that decision. The framework and methodology are explained by following an "illustrative business case" from beginning to end.

Strategic archiving - JUN 2004
Using information lifecycle management to archive data more efficiently and comply with new regulations

Lean Storage - JUN 2004
The principles of lean manufacturing offer valuable lessons for companies wrestling with rapid data growth and rising storage costs. For data centers, information lifecycle management provides this framework.

Caring for patient information - APR 2004
Considerations for compliant storage management of patient medical images, including analyzing retrieval patterns and adapting storage to match

Purpose-driven storage - FEB 2004
Applying an information lifecycle management approach to reduce storage costs, manage information growth and enhance data protection

Consolidating Enterprise Data with the StorageTek SL8500 (IDC) - JUL 2005
Larger enterprises will need a robust tape library as part of the consolidated storage environment. IDC believes that tape remains a critical component in a large company's information lifecycle management (ILM) infrastructure.

Storage and Compliance: Finding the Balance and Flexibility (IDC) - JUN 2005
Companies are expending great effort on creating and formalizing regulatory compliance processes, policies, and procedures. Information management for compliance platform will emerge in response to these efforts.

Building an Intelligent Archive (Enterprise Strategy Group) - MAY 2005
As companies inevitably continue to create, share, and retain greater volumes of valuable information assets, the criticality of creating an intelligent archive will increase accordingly.

The Growing Importance of Archive (Freeman Reports) - MAY 2005
Freeman Reports recently completed a major study of archiving to determine the size and growth opportunity of the archive market and to examine the role that StorageTek plays in this space. Freeman Reports’ extensive historic database was used to determine key market characteristics.

Data Protection - Putting the 'T' in 'D2D2T' (Data Mobiility Group) - APR 2005
Disk should be viewed as adding an additional level of data protection to the existing backup infrastructure. While disk can be used for caching, tape continues to maintain its place in the data center both for retention of long-term backups and for archival storage.

Storage Resource Management—Building a Foundation for ILM (Data Mobility Group) - MAR 2005
A sustainable storage strategy requires balancing the cost of storing and managing information with its changing value to the enterprise over time. This concept is now known to IT professionals as Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). ILM offers a practical methodology for aligning storage costs with business priorities.

Emerging Opportunities in Database Information Life-Cycle Management (META Group) - MAR 2005
Through 2007, data growth estimates will continue to tax the practical limits of relational database performance, maintenance capabilities, and time requirements. Although processing power doubles and disk prices are halved every 18 months, no such scalability model applies to database software.

Storability Releases GSM V4 (Enterprise Strategy Group) - DEC 2004
StorageTek recently acquired Storability, breathing new life into the Enterprise Storage Management vendor. The acquisition will enhance Storability’s ability to deliver new features and functionality to help its Global Storage Manager compete in this crowded market.

Data Protection and Recovery Strategies (Fred Moore - Horison Information Strategies) - NOV 2004
Enterprise data protection has evolved well beyond basic backup and recovery. There are several alternatives available today. Your choice of a data protection strategy depends on how you value your data. This paper contains some considerations and rules-of-thumb for choosing and developing a data protection strategy.

Getting the most out of ROI and TCO (Data Mobility Group) - OCT 2004
ROI and TCO model play an important role in providing senior managers with a view of the enterprise IT environment and how well that environment is aligned to the business it serves and supports. IT administrators should incorporate ROI and TCO models as part of their ongoing process.

Aligning Data Protection Strategies with Business Value (IDC) - OCT 2004
Data protection techniques are more varied than ever before, and there are more to come. A data protection technique should match the data protected, and should support the objectives of your business. Consider a three-step process to begin addressing data protection issues.