Oracle Information Lifecycle Management
Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is concerned
with everything that happens to data during its lifetime. Although
most organizations have long regarded their stores of data as one
of their most valuable corporate assets, how this data was managed
and maintained varies enormously. Originally, data was used to help
achieve operational goals, run the business and help identify the
future direction and success of the company. However new government
regulations and guidelines, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, DOD5015.2-STD
in the US and the European Data Privacy Directive in the European
Union, are a key driving force in how and why data is being retained,
as they are now requiring organizations to retain and control information
for very long periods of time.
Information today comes in a wide variety of types,
for example it could be an email message, a photograph or an order
in an Online Transaction Processing System. The challenge now before
all organizations, is to understand how their data evolves, determine
how it grows, monitor how its usage changes over time, and decide
how long it should survive
Today there are two additional objectives IT
managers are trying to satisfy: to store vast quantities of data,
for the lowest possible cost; and to meet the new regulatory requirements
for data retention and protection.
Oracle Database 11g is Ready for Business ILM
Oracle Database 11g is ready today for
Business ILM. It is capable of storing many different types of data,
and storing all of your data in an Oracle database, means that it
is much easier to manage, because the data is all in one place,
instead of being stored using many different formats. Thus the Oracle
database is the ideal platform to implement an Information Lifecycle
Management policy, because it has a number of unique features, which
makes it very easy to implement an ILM solution:
- Fine-grained: managing data at individual row
level
- Application Transparency; data classification
is transparent
- Low-Cost: uses low cost storage to reduce costs
- Enforceable Compliance Policies
Implement ILM in 4 Easy Steps
ILM can be implemented using Oracle Database
11g by following these three simple steps:
- Define the Data Classes
- Create Storage Tiers for the Data Classes
- Create Data Access and Migration Policies
- Define and Enforce Compliance Policies
Data can be classified in a variety of ways,
such as on frequency of usage, and then storage tiers can be created
for the data classes that have been identified. During the lifetime
of the data, it will then migrate between the data classes and access
to it will be controlled. Eventually the data may be archived or
it could remain inside the database forever.
Oracle ILM Assistant
The Oracle ILM Assistant is a GUI based tool for managing your ILM environment. It provides the ability to create lifecycle definitions, which are assigned to tables in the database. Then based on the lifecycle policy, the ILM Assistant advises when it is time to move, archive or delete data. It will also illustrate the storage requirements and cost savings associated with moving the data. Other capabilities include the ability to show how to partition a table based on a lifecycle definition and to simulate the events on a table if it were partitioned.
To assist with managing compliance issues, the ILM Assistant will show all VPD and FGA policies that have been defined. It can also display and query all the audit records and generate and compare digital signatures.
The Oracle ILM Assistant requires Oracle Database 9i or greater and that Oracle Application Express (formerly HTML Db) must be installed in the database where the tables to be managed by the ILM Assistant reside. Initially, only tables partitioned on a date are eligible and the ILM Assistant does not make any physical changes to the database, instead it generates scripts so that you can perform the tasks when you are ready.
Conclusion
Oracle Database 11g is ideal for implementing
ILM because it is simple to use since there are no specialized data
stores to manage and it operates independent of any hardware. It
has proven fast performance, therefore all information can be quickly
retrieved. The security features in the database ensure that data
is secure from unauthorized access and data is always transactionally
consistent. The Oracle Database provides total flexibility, therefore
it can rapidly adapt to any change in requirements, which is extremely
important due to the continuing evolution of the emerging regulations.
Using Oracle Database 11g, a comprehensive ILM
solution can be implemented for the lowest possible cost.
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