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Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) refers to strategies for administering storage systems on computing devices.
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ILM is the practice of applying certain policies to effective information management. This practice originated from managing information in physical forms such as paper, microfilm, negatives, photographs, audio or video recordings, and other assets.[1]
ILM includes every phase of a "record" from its start to end. While it is generally applied to information that rises to the classic definition of a record (and thus related to records management), it applies to all informational assets. During its existence, information can become a record by being identified as documenting a business transaction or as satisfying a business need. In this sense, ILM has been part of the overall approach to enterprise content management.
However, "business" should be understood broadly and not strictly associated with commercial or enterprise activities. While many records may relate to business enterprises, not all do. Some documented information serves to record historical events or significant moments, rather than business activities. Examples of these are birth, death, medical/health, and educational records. e-Science, for example, is an area where ILM has become relevant.
In 2004, the Storage Networking Industry Association, on behalf of the information technology (IT) and information storage industries, attempted to assign a new broader definition to Information Lifecycle Management (ILM). A definition released in October of 2004 at the Storage Networking World conference in Orlando, Florida, stated that "ILM consists of the policies, processes, practices, and tools used to align the business value of information with the most appropriate and cost-effective IT infrastructure from the time information is conceived through its final disposition."[2] In this view, information is aligned with business processes through management policies and service levels associated with applications, metadata, information, and data.
ILM policy consists of the overarching storage and information policies that drive management processes. Policies are dictated by business goals and drivers. Therefore, policies generally tie into a framework of overall IT governance and management; change control processes; requirements for system availability and recovery times; and service level agreements (SLAs).
Operational aspects of ILM include backup and data protection; disaster recovery, restore, and restart; archiving and long-term retention; data replication; and day-to-day processes and procedures necessary to manage a storage architecture.
Infrastructure facets of ILM include both logical and physical architectures; the applications dependent upon the storage platforms; security of storage; and data center constraints. Within the application realm, the relationship between applications and the production, test, and development requirements are generally most relevant for ILM.
In business records management, five phases are identified as part of the records life cycle continuum, along with certain exceptions. The phases are as follows:
• Creation & Receipt • Distribution • Use • Maintenance • Disposition
Creation and Receipt involves records at their point of origin, which can be either the creation of records within an organization or the receipt of information from external sources. This phase includes various types of records, such as correspondence, forms, reports, drawings, and computer input/output.
Distribution refers to the process of managing information after it has been created or received. This includes both internal and external distribution, as records that leave the organization serve as documentation of transactions with outside parties.
Use occurs after internal distribution and involves the application of information to support business decisions, document actions, or fulfill other organizational purposes.
Maintenance encompasses the management of records, including filing, retrieval, and transfer. Filing involves organizing information in a prescribed sequence and developing a system to manage it throughout its useful life within the organization. Effective filing is essential for efficient retrieval and use; inadequate filing practices make accessing information difficult. The transfer process involves responding to requests, retrieving information from files, and providing access to authorized users. While information is temporarily removed from files, tracking procedures ensure it is available and returned for others who may need it.
Disposition is the process of handling information that is accessed infrequently or has reached the end of its retention period. Records used infrequently may be moved to an “inactive records facility” until they meet their retention limit. Although some information retains long-term value, most records lose relevance over time, with their highest value occurring shortly after creation. Records then transition from active to semi-active, and eventually to inactive status.Stephens, 2007, p.34. Retention periods are set by an organization-specific retention schedule based on regulatory, statutory, and legal requirements, as well as business needs and historical or intrinsic value. When information is no longer valuable, it should be appropriately disposed of to protect privacy and confidentiality.
Long-term records are those with ongoing value to an organization. Retention periods may extend to 25 years or longer, with some records designated as “indefinite” or “permanent.” However, “permanent” is a rare designation outside of federal agencies due to the impracticality of such retention. Long-term records must be managed to ensure persistent accessibility, which is relatively straightforward with paper or microfilm but more challenging for electronic records. Electronic records require policies for format viability and media accessibility, as media can degrade or become obsolete. Regular conversion and migration of electronic records helps maintain accessibility for required retention periods.
Exceptions to the typical life cycle occur with non-recurring issues outside routine operations. For example, when a legal hold, litigation hold, or legal freeze is required, a records manager places a legal hold within the records management system, preventing the affected files from being scheduled for disposition.
- Automated tiered storage
- ARMA International
- Application retirement
- Computer data storage
- Data classification (disambiguation)
- Data proliferation
- Digital asset management
- Digital continuity
- Digital preservation
- Document management
- Enterprise content management
- Hierarchical storage management
- Information governance
- Information repository
- Records management
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