Tiered Storage

Tiered storage is an underlying principle of ILM (information lifecycle management). It is a storage networking method where data is stored on various types of media based on performance, availability and recovery requirements. For example, data intended for restoration in the event of data loss or corruption could be stored locally — for fast recovery — while data for regulatory purposes could be archived to lower cost disks.

Today’s tiered storage infrastructures range from simple two-tier architecture consisting of SCSI or fibre channel attached disk and tape to more complex infrastructures, which in some cases are comprised of five-to-six tiers. Regardless of the number of tiers, organizations are looking to tiered storage and ILM to lower cost and improve operational efficiency.

Implementing tiered storage infrastructures can dramatically decrease the cost associated with achieving an RPO and RTO of zero. Classification of data can provide different RPOs and RTOs based on application and business requirements. Policy-based data migration ensures that the right data is in the right place at the right time.

Learn more about storage networking on Enterprise Storage Forum.

Top 5 Related Storage Questions

1. What is storage?
2. What is storage device?
3. What is storage management?
4. What is network-attached storage?
5. What is storage area network?

Related Webopedia References

Storage Virtualization: Myths, Realities and Other Considerations
The Benefits of Tiered Storage
Storage Strategies Made Simple

Vangie Beal
Vangie Beal
Vangie Beal is a freelance business and technology writer covering Internet technologies and online business since the late '90s.

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