Storage is an increasingly important and complex part of an IT manager's job. Tools like Storage Area Networks ( SAN) and Network Attached Storage ( NAS) were supposed to make the IT manager's life easier. However, they have often proven to be more costly and troublesome than originally hoped. Fortunately, there is a tool that can help reduce both the cost of storage and the complexity of managing it: hierarchical storage management (HSM).
What Is Hierarchical Storage Management?
Hierarchical Storage Management ( HSM) is software for organizing different types of storage (e.g. SAN, disk, tape) into different levels of price and performance. This lets you move certain network files up in the hierarchy as they become more important and others down as they become less important.
HSM was originally developed for large mainframe platforms, but has migrated to medium-sized applications. With enterprise...