While control unit storage tiering may be considered as a replacement to HSM processing for smaller environments, such a recommendation is an over simplification of the need for a comprehensive ILM strategy to properly manage data in middle-to-large environments. At the various conferences that I attend each year, this concept was originally discussed when cu tiering was first introduced, but after discussions, all three vendors see the value of HSM ILM and cu tiering being used together to create a powerful solution as opposed trying to select one over another. Each tiering technique, hardware and software, has strengths and weaknesses. Using each technique to its strengths provides tremendous opportunity as we move forward with managing the significant growth of data that we are seeing. In z/OS V2R1, DFSMS introduced its initial Storage Tiering solution. This offering lays the framework for z/OS's long term strategy to provide various ILMs solutions so that clients can implement the ILM solution that works best for them. An integral part of this strategy is to move away from ML1 and move toward an L0 - Ln, ML2 solution. Tape is still clearly the best storage media for long-term data archiving, and all three vendors will agree to that. I am currently working with clients to move to an L0 - Ln, ML2 environment, and it is exciting to see the opportunities that exist by integrating software and hardware tiering into a single, powerful ILM strategy. I'm more than happy to meet with clients to discuss the V2R1 DFSMS Storage Tiering solution and discuss the opportunities that it provides to exploit the strengths of the two types of tiering.
Glenn Wilcock DFSMShsm Architect ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
