Information Lifecycle Management

Currently we see storage in corporate data centres increasing every year and the associated costs of ownership increasing with the storage. While the growth of unstructured data has become a challenge in this regard, when we analyse the actual use of storage we often find that structured data also continues to grow rapidly. In order to effectively manage enterprise information the challenges of structured data growth need to be addressed along with the unstructured data.

The discipline of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) has developed to address the challenges of structured data growth. ILM is the practice of applying policies, processes and tools for the effective management of information throughout its life. ILM manages every record of data from its beginning to its end, with the goal of optimising the value of a specific record of information within the most cost effective IT infrastructure, throughout the life of the data.

While ILM is often seen primarily as the cost effective use of storage through archiving, the range of ILM applications has grown and now covers a range of applications including:

  • Management Data Growth through archiving to improve application performance
  • Preparation of data within applications in support of Retirement and Consolidation projects while providing access to data after retirement to meet compliance requirements
  • Enabling effective Test Data Management through the creations of appropriately sized, depersonalised test databases
  • Manage data throughout in big data environments
  • Enabling ILM in Cloud and Virtual environments
  • Protect Data Privacy by depersonalising sensitive data in nonproduction and analytical systems manage risk and comply with government and industry regulations

Kwezi Software Solutions has an experienced team of data architects, database administrators and ILM tool specialists working in the ILM area. Our team works with organisations to understand the lifecycle of structured data within each organisation and application. We assist clients to build policies for ILM, design effective processes and implement the appropriate tools. Where possible we re-use existing tools in line with our principles. Our experience in the ILM area has taught us, the need for close alignment of IT initiatives with business goals and the value of implementing business change programmes to ensure the success of ILM.