Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is a critical issue in managing storage, and Exanet is assisting its customers focus on this topic by sponsoring a byteandswitch.com webinar on ILM on September 22, 2004. Mesabi Group founder, Dave Hill, will share his insights about how technology managers can leverage ILM principles to manage their storage more effectively. Exanet is a leading developer of hardware independent grid storage software solutions critical for ILM. Dave Hill, a former analyst with Aberdeen Group, is founder of the Mesabi Group, a consultancy specializing in storage and ILM. “Companies that realize the critical link between efficient data access and ILM are developing practical solutions for the ILM process,” said Hill. “Policy-based automation -- including policies for tiering, pooling, and data retention -- must work with a broad range of storage hardware to build an effective ILM solution.” “Hierarchical storage management systems have existed for a long time. New storage technologies now make it practical to use HSM technology to address ILM requirements,” said Clive Surfleet, Exanet’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Storage virtualization systems can now store data on different classes of storage based on use patterns. When this is combined with file systems designed to protect the integrity of the original data, information lineage can be preserved.” Exanet’s distributed architecture allows for better management of hardware capacity investment, such as fibre channel and SATA RAID arrays. ExaStore’s distributed dynamic caching, real-time load balancing, self-healing system, and full redundancy minimize risk and allow long-term integrity of data, while its global namespace enables continuous and easy management of that data. Businesses benefit most from an ExaStore solution because it provides full access to their data on industry-standard, off-the-shelf hardware, keeping total cost of ownership to manageable levels. It allows companies to integrate disparate storage pools into a single, complete, high-performance, low-cost system that is highly reliable and automated. Additionally, the ExaStore system scales to virtually any storage capacity or bandwidth level, allowing continuous management of information, regardless of bandwidth. ExaStore also can be custom-tailored to work with industry-specific software solutions, allowing seamless integration on almost any system platform, including Apple, Windows, Unix, and Linux and provides the standard file system APIs: NFS, CIFS and AFP to applications. ExaStore is available today in a wide range of configurations starting at a single terabyte and scalable to hundreds of terabytes. Complete ExaStore systems are available from Exanet and its major distributors worldwide, including Kodak Polychrome Graphics. To register for the Byte & Switch webinar, please visit http://www.byteandswitch.com/webinar.asp?doc_id=27034&promo=26339 .