Developing an ILM strategy

Information Lifecycle Management or ILM as it is known popularly is perhaps the most important aspect of any organization today. This means that every organization needs to think over how it wants to handle its data right from the time it is created to the time it looses its value.

With the kind of data growth we are witnessing, it is becoming even more important for the organizations to understand how frequently they need to access the data, and how long do they need to retain that data.

Compliance regulations are one of the driving factors to define the overall retention period and business practices help define the criticality of the data.

It is for this reason that I believe that ILM is more of a business function than a pure IT function. In Indian context, you can co-relate this with the VAT authorities. If they have a query of current year data, they call you same day or next day. If it is a couple of years old case, you get 15-20 days to respond to every query and if it goes to 5-6 years old data, sometimes the case goes on for another year. Even they don’t ask for more than 10 years old data.

The only difference is that the business owner stored his sales files earlier at different locations based on their age and now on different disks and storages based on the same factor. The driving factor has always been the criticality and compliance for that data.

By categorizing your data into active and non-active data, and based upon the urgency of its availability, you can store this on tiered storage. This enables you to store the most recent and critical data on your fastest and most accessible devices (or cloud), and retire the rest to archivals, thereby saving both cost and resources.

Quick Go To Market

One of the key advantages for opting for a Cloud Based Solution or Application is the speed of deployment. Actually, you don’t have to deploy much on your own. So the Cloud brings in minimum procurement cycles and minimum deployment cycles. A typical example is an ERP application or a mailing application where the application is set and ready to use. All you need to do is some basic customization as per your needs, and start using it. More people joining in means more users created and getting operational quickly.

Another example comes from Ace Data flagship product Abhraya. All you need to do is sign up with us on the cost and the SLA. When you add a new server or end point device, just create its backup set and you are ready. Even for large data, it does not take more than 8 to 10 working hours to import it manually, depending on the volume. In a comparitive study done at one of our customers, who in parallel started the process for his traditional backup solution, we got very interesting results. While it took six weeks to complete the procurement and delivery cycles for licenses and tape media, we were in production in eight hours with 250 GB of MS Exchange database. That’s the speed of Cloud.

Cloud Makes Enterprise Class Applications Affordable

Cloud computing has made it very easy for even startup organizations to get the benefits of enterprise class products without the need to implement huge infrastructure and bother about managing it.

Consider starting up your new venture and needing an ERP for a 5 user organization. It would not be very easy decision and for long the organization would run along on spreadsheets and Word documents to take care of their sales planning, purchase, invoicing etc.

With cloud computing gaining momentum, leading enterprise class ERP softwares are available on the Cloud. This means that even a small organization does not need to spend on the application and the hardware infrastructure behind it. No infrastructure means no maintenance as well. No technical team required to take care of operations. Add to this the flexibility of using an application customized for your specific needs and paying on a per user basis. This means your cost increases only when more users get added.

Apart from ERP, other professional applications like mailing and backup are also available on similar basis. Startups and SMBs should consider evaluating Cloud service providers for their basic needs to enjoy the benefits of Enterprise Class Applications at a low cost.

Cloud for Better Management

One big benefit that cloud computing brings in is the hands-off management for the technology user and the internal IT team. When you are hosting applications in-house and build your own infrastructure, you need a lot of expertise in managing the same. You need to have a dedicated application & database manager who is well-qualified to handle this portfolio.

For a large enterprise this may not be a challenge, and they can take care of the staff augmentation challenges. For SMBs though, this could be a big concern. It is for this reason most of them are not able to leverage the benefits of enterprise applications.

Getting the same application on the Cloud brings in the management components with it. A good service provider will ensure that your applications are taken well care of and they are up and running 24x7 with optimal performance. An exceptional service provider would even have a disaster recovery site to ensure smooth operations even if his own Cloud Data Center poses any threat or challenge.