Prior to ADT

Before ADT there were strides made towards and automated data tiering system which really took off with information life-cycle management or (ILC). I found a peer-reviewed academic article that described what ILC was and how it worked. "ILM, Tiered Storage, and Active Archive" by Mark Amelang describes ILM and how with other methods of data storage it can be effective. It focuses on the gas and oil industry which requires a massive amount of data storage that needs to be sifted through and categorized into different places throughout the data storage library. Amelang describes ILM by stating it "utilizes policy management, information management software and tiered storage to seamlessly identify, classify and move data throughout the enterprise to support business initiatives" (Amelang, 2005). It is a cost effective strategy to access, store, and manage information based on its current value to the company (Amelang, 2005). Automated Data Tiering can be considered the advancement of ILC because it is fully automated and does not require a storage administrator. In the Computer World article "Automating the Data Store" by Robert L. Scheier, the author explains that by automating the entire process we prevent the system from getting bogged down in the data classification and policy-setting that is faced in ILM (Scheier, 2010). By building on ILM and making the system fully automatic like it is in ADT (Automatic Data Tiering), companies will experience even more time saved and even more cost reductions.