Storage management refers to a collection of machines, software, analysts, procedures, structure, techniques, and goals that are used to store, organize, analyze, and backup data. Storage management can be implemented by any company and varies in the size of the company, the amount of data to be stored, and the techniques that are implemented. While many programs pass themselves off as storage management solutions, storage management encompasses the entire system a company uses to store, organize, analyze, evaluate, and process information.

 

How Storage Management Works

Essentially, storage management is a term for data backup and support. However, storage management is much more than simple backup procedures, as it involves anything and anyone who is involved in securing the data. For example, storage management may refer to the way data is handled as well as the exact location it is copied to and the software that is able to access it.

Storage management specifications are standardized by the following technologies and software:

SNMP

telnet

HTTP

Proprietary thick-client management software applications

Industry Standards Used in Storage Management

Standard Organization

CIM Specification

DMTF

CIM Operations over HTTP

DMTF

CIM Schema

DMTF

CIM-XML

DMTF

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Object Management Group

Service Location Protocol (SLP)

IETF

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (RFC1945, RFC2068)

IETF

An Extension to HTTP: Digest Access Authentication (RFC2069) IETF

Transport Layer Security Protocol (TLS) (RFC2246) IETF

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

IETF

The Directory: Public-key and attribute certificate frameworks (DER encoded X.509)

ITU-T

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies (RFC2045) IETF

PKCS #12: Personal Information Exchange Syntax Standard

RSA Laboratories

 

Applications

Storage management can be used to secure important data for a company or organization, such as customer or membership data that must be used to handle customer orders and process recurring payments. If this information is lost, the company may have to ask each of its customers (which will no longer be contactable) to resubmit their personal information, prompting many customers whether they should re-initiate the service or not. A loss of server data can also cause a company to lose its tax and license information, effectively shutting the company down over night. By using proper storage management software, a company should be protected against all of these possible threats.

 

Advantages

Storage management is advantageous because it allows a company to keep track of their files and ensure that business can continue if an unforeseen event were to happen. For example, if a company’s server fails and all of its stored data is lost, the company is very likely to fall apart within five years if it has not implemented a reliable storage management protocol.