Data Management Initiative

The SNIA Data Management Forum is currently operating several initiative-based workgroups, including the Data Protection Initiative (DPI) and the Information Lifecycle Management Initiative (ILM-I). Each initiaitve is chartered to foster accelerated deployment of best practices for a specific subset of data management functions.

The SNIA Data Protection Initiative is focused on defining new approaches and best practices for data protection and recovery. The major area of focus is on disk-based data protection. Members are working to organize and unify this emerging marketplace by defining new metrics, implementation guides, and reference models, such as the "Value of Data” and the “The Value of Protection”. The goal is to build the knowledge base and training capabilities to become the worldwide authority on data protection and retention, helping all of the SNIA’s constituents (vendors, IT, regulatory agencies, and channel partners) to better understand and implement data protection solutions.

The Information Lifecycle Management Initiative's work began with defining a vision for Information Lifecycle Management – a unifying vision of what ILM will become and its impact on the datacenter. Now work is underway on the next elements of defining a reference architecture for ILM, including data classification, market & product segmentation, and phases of implementation that leverage today’s information management and data management services.