Information lifecycle management, or ILM, involves the management of information from its creation through its deletion. ILM, which is also commonly referred to as “data retention” covers everything from provisioning data, monitoring it, storing it, protecting it, restoring it, replication, data access and sharing, and data migration to archiving and deleting data.

Due to various business, industry, and legal requirements, businesses may need to retain data for many years. However, that data is not necessarily needed on a regular basis. Thus, ILM attempts to manage it in an affordable, secure, and compliant manner. That’s where ILM and data retention software comes in.

With numerous data retention vendors vying for your business, which one is right for your needs? The following criteria can help you make a sound decision:

• Problem/Solution – Software solutions are designed to solve a particular problem. Identify your specific problem and ask yourself if the vendor both understands the nature of the problem and has developed a solution to it.
• Workflow – Does the vendor’s ILM process have a workflow that makes sense? For example, how does the vendor define its data retention process? Does your own internal data retention process map nicely to the vendor’s? If not, does it make sense to adopt the vendor’s workflow?
• Integration – Does the vendor’s solution integrate with third party products? Does it integrate with the products you currently rely on? The ability to integrate ILM software with your key systems can keep your costs down, avoid redundant systems, and ensure that everything “plays nicely with each other.”
• Required Features – Does the vendor’s solution provide the features that you need such as storage, data archives, legal compliance, security, or disaster recovery?
• Vendor Services – While some software simply works out of the box, ILM isn’t one of them. You’ll want to choose a vendor who offers a robust list of consulting services to ensure that your solution truly solves your data retention challenges.
• Simplicity – Information lifecycle management may be a complex discipline, but the software used to manage your data shouldn’t be overly difficult to use.

Dolphin offers a variety of SAP data retention tools and solutions including its innovative Archive Retention Cockpit and Data Retention Tool.

Sources:

1. “What’s in Store: Debunking Information Life-cycle Management Promises” from Computer World: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/90254/What_s_in_Store_Debunking_information_life_cycle_management_promises?taxonomyId=19&pageNumber=1.
2. “Smart SAP Data Archiving for Information Lifecycle Management” from Dolphin Corporation: http://www.dolphin-corp.com/information-lifecycle-management/.

About the author: 

James Hadley is a father, husband and IT consultant. He lives in San Francisco and enjoys exploring around town. To get to know more about the author, connect with him on Google+.