ABSTRACT
The main problem with unstructured data growth is rooted in the difficulty in managing the data lifecycle. Data begins life “hot” and frequently accessed, but as data ages, at some point it should be moved to a lower tier. The client sees the stub; the virtualization software accesses a lookup table that identifies the stub and the location of the real data. The big advantage is that the stubs can remain in place, therefore not disrupting client access to files, but the files themselves can be migrated as they age. Migration is a manual process for moving data from an old hardware platform to a newer, better hardware platform. Information lifecycle management and hierarchical storage management have both been around for years; they attack the same problems as migration and tiered data movement. Some IT shops find these tools invaluable; others have found another way to manage aging data.
