Information LifeCycle Management (ILM) involves classifying data to map its business value to the corresponding features of the infrastructure it resides on.  This classification enables IT to appropriately build tiered infrastructure based on what the business needs, not based on the latest technology trends.  Benefits of an ILM solution include lower cost of storage, better use of existing IT resources and application performance by moving aged data off high end systems. Additionally, improvements to operational efficiencies due to shorter backup, restore and maintenance windows, while reducing risk of falling out of compliance are other benefits.
In order to achieve these, business involvement is critical.  The business – owners of application data – knows the context of how that information is used and the legal or financial ramifications if data becomes unavailable.  If IT moves inactive application data to a slower platform or archives it offline without business’ input or approval, or knowledge of how the application accesses that data, processes and systems could break and become inoperative.  Fingers point at each other, good business turns sour, and organizations lose focus.
This is why Data Governance goes hand in hand with ILM.  Data Governance provides an Executive sponsored framework for how the business and IT manage information – both active and inactive data.    Even though data becomes inactive, or seldom accessed, this does not always mean it can be tiered or archived offline.  Data Governance if done right gives the business the authority to determine what data can go where, gives IT a process to follow for executing on ILM principles, and gives executives a way to measure the program’s success.
If Data Governance exists in your company, does it assign data retention schedules to a business owner? Do data destruction procedures assure proper sign off and an audit log?   Is IT involved in defining the data destruction procedures to make sure the technology is configured to support the necessary data deletion or tiering steps? Are Data Objects defined in the application to make sure that when data is tiered or purged, referential integrity is maintained?  Application ILM tools, such as Informatica’s Data Archive product, can help map the Data Objects to Data Retention policies and automate the execution of an ILM policy – reducing risk associated with error-prone manual processes.  Data Governance assures companies that an ILM solution will provide the benefits it seeks.

Julie Lockner, President & Founder, CentricInfoTM
www.CentricInfo.com