Storage Management Solutions for Distributed Computing Environments
Reiner Lomb, Kelly A. Emo, Roy M. VanDoorn · 1996
Storage management is fast becoming one of the most important issues information technology (IT) managers face today. With data accumulating at enormous rates, and with end users demanding faster access to more information, storage management has moved from an operation that was done only at night to a mission-critical concern that requires full-time attention. Storage management consists of all the activities related to the effective deployment, accessibility, and use of stored information across a computing infrastructure. Storage management involves several major disciplines, including backing up and restoring data, storing data online across multiple classes of storage devices such as disks and tape, archiving data for legal and historical purposes, and managing storage resources such as tape or optical media for optimal use. Managing these storage disciplines takes an effective combination of organization, processes, and technologies to meet end-user data-availability expectations. In today’s distributed computing environments, IT managers need consistent storage management strategies and processes across the enterprise. In addition, storage management processes cannot be separated from an integrated network and system strategy. Therefore, IT managers need complete solutions that integrate the various storage management components and technologies such as databases, file systems, storage peripherals, storage management applications, and network and system management strategies. In the past, storage management solutions have been proprietary (mainframes) or piecemeal (early client/server point products), with specific peripherals working only with specific software and hardware. It was difficult to expand a solution to meet the demands of rapidly growing collections of data. In this article we will describe trends driving storage management technology and the components that make up an ideal storage management solution. Finally, we’ll introduce HP hardware and software products, services, and partners and describe how they work together providing storage solutions for our customers.