10.3 Storage Management

Storage management (also referred to as enterprise storage management) is a broader category of storage functions that may, in addition to asset tracking, include tape backup, archiving, data placement, and volume and file policy administration. A storage management application may be an umbrella, multifunctional platform, packaged as a suite of complementary software products or as stand-alone programs dedicated to specific management functions (such as tape backup). As with SRM applications, storage management is facilitated by, but not dependent on, storage area network topologies. Vendors of storage management products, however, have become SAN proponents, largely because of the greater flexibility provided by SANs over other storage configurations.

Storage management functions may monitor access to shared resources such as tape libraries or optical archives, schedule nondisruptive disk defragmentation routines, manage the growth and integrity of file systems, and oversee cross-platform access to storage. The more tightly integrated these activities are within a single application, the simpler storage administration becomes for day-to-day operations. As more storage, tape, and archive systems appear on the SAN, integration is further enhanced, because the storage management platform itself can access resources directly without having to pass through servers.