IBM Tivoli Storage Manager - TSM

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager is the core product of the IBM Tivoli Storage Management product set. It provides a solution for distributed data and storage management in an enterprise network environment. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager protects and manages data from more than 30 operating platforms, covering mobile, desktop, and server systems over the entire distributed world. It supports hundreds of storage devices (including disk, tape, and optical) as well as LAN, WAN and SAN infrastructures.

These are the base functions provided by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and its complementary products:

Data protection, including:

* Operational backup and restore of data: The backup process creates a copy of the data to protect against the operational loss or destruction of file or application data. The customer defines how often to back up (frequency) and how many numbers of copies (versions) to hold. The restore process places the backup copy of the data back into a customer-designated system or workstation.

* Disaster recovery: All activities required to organize, manage, and automate the recovery process from a major loss of IT infrastructure and data across the enterprise. This includes processes to move data offsite into a secure vault location, to rebuild IT infrastructure, and to reload data successfully in an acceptable time frame.

Data resource management, including:

* Vital record retention, archive and retrieval: The archive process creates a copy of a file or a set of files representing an end point of a process for long term storage. Files can remain on the local storage media or can be deleted. The customer controls how long (via the retention period) an archive copy is to be retained. The retrieval process locates the copies within the archival storage and places them back into a customer-designated system or workstation.

* Space management (or hierarchical storage management): This process provides the automatic and transparent movement of operational data from the user system disk space to a central storage repository. If the user accesses this data, it is dynamically and transparently restored to the client storage. The solution is network based, which means that these functions are available to the whole network environment. All the functions can be automated to run in a 24X7 lights-out environment. Administration costs are minimized by centralization of all of the management of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager components.