Originating Author: David Floyer
The advice in the tiered storage technology integration alert was to focus on data-classification. There is a large amount of tiered storage management software that seemingly allows a lot of flexibility in developing data classification standards but few how-to guides on how to practically get it done.
The key to success seems to be to take an application view and ensure that there is agreement between the business and IT on the best storage technology fit. This requires an effective way to look at all the storage resources used by an application and measure the effect of moving the application through the tiers. This data, together with the relatively simple data of the number of users, amount of time used, and relative contribution to creating business value, should ensure that effective classification decisions can be made and maintained automatically.
Action item: Take a simple application-led approach and avoid the temptation to take on too much (e.g., an ILM classification strategy). Collecting any metadata is good and can be enhanced in the future. The job of classification belongs to the users. The job of providing the infrastructure of data services that can create the data for users to make the decision belongs to IT.