"No single vendor can provide all the elements of ILM"

Jean-Luc Chatelain helps craft the overall Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)
strategy for HP through customer interaction and by serving as an ILM ambassador
to its subsidiaries such as IPG and HP Labs. He sheds some light about HP's
migration strategy including data migration utilities for migration of email,
files, and database tables to lower tiers of storage or the archive.

How does ILM present a shift from data storage as of now?

ILM defines a process for automatically managing information across its
lifecycle, typically separated into operational, transitional, and records
management phases. A well-designed ILM strategy will enable an organization to
capture, manage, retain and deliver information and includes integrated,
coordinated, management of data across the lifecycle, from discovery,
classification, data protection, and migration, to long-term archival.

Data protection and continuous data protection are the primary objectives
during the operational phase of the lifecycle. Migration of data between tiers
of storage, which optimizes the quality of service and minimizes cost of storage
are the key TCO and business drivers during the transitional phase. During the
records management phase, long-term archival, search by content, and retention
management assume critical importance. At the very end of the data lifecycle,
data is automatically disposed of based on the retention and disposal policies
defined during the discovery and classification process.

What are the norms to lay the groundwork for ILM by deploying a unified
storage environment with policy-based data management?

Developing policies and deploying data management strategies, including ILM,
requires that an organization understand and be able to manage data across its
infrastructure. One must first comprehend their infrastructure, and then
understand the information that resides on that infrastructure. Only then can
effective ILM policies be developed and implemented.

How do you differentiate your ILM offerings from those offered by others?

HP has built one of the most detailed and comprehensive ILM portfolios in
the enterprise IT industry spanning arrays, tape, magneto-optical, NAS,
archiving, data protection, services, and data and infrastructure management
software. No other vendor can match the breadth, depth and knowledge of ILM.

A key element of this portfolio is HP Storage Works Reference Information
Systems Storage (RISS). RISS is a highly adaptable object model disk-based
solution. It is based on HP smart cell technology using the HP Storage Works
Grid architecture.

RISS does not support Web services and common Internet and network file
systems. Neither does it offer specialized support for vertical markets. How are
you going to tackle this?

RISS is scheduled to support common Internet file system and network file
system in the first half of 2006. We have also publicly announced development
for Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) connectivity for
picture archival communication system (PACS) vendors in the healthcare vertical.

How does HP ILM help customers convert corporate data with the help of
RISS?

HP provides both the ILM consulting expertise and the ILM products to help
customers implement an ILM-managed environment. Further, it utilizes industry
standard interfaces to seamlessly integrate with third party ILM ERM, ECM, and
data management applications.

HP also provides a set of data management utilities which are specifically
integrated with HP's ILM archiving and compliance platforms and offer continuous
data protection and migration capabilities for files, database rows and tables,
and Exchange and Lotus Notes email environments.

What's HP's ILM partner program all about?

Partner products fill gaps in HP's ILM portfolio and, depending on the level
of partnership, enable HP to offer a solution faster than internal development
would allow, offer a solution in a niche market with minimum effort and expense
and, thirdly, offer a solution using an accepted best-of-breed technology. HP
has developed a three-tier partner program to work closely with partners on API
development against storage solutions, certification and qualification as well
as the ability to do joint go-to-market efforts of a HP+ Partner-based solution.

Partners benefit because HP supports their products in a variety of ways. For
example, Gold Business partners receive free access to many of HP's ILM
softwares, technologies and services while Platinum Business partners may also
participate with HP in specific events and avail access to HP labs for
integration testing. Elite Business partners stand to receive still greater
benefits.

EMC has significantly expanded its footprint in the software market.
What's your take on EMC as a competitor and its ILM strategy?

EMC has some good assets acquired via multiple acquisitions contributing to
their market share. The same, however, require integration into the company.
This takes time and effort away from customers and development. We believe that
customers generally want choice as well as reliability.

Further, we believe that no single vendor can provide all of the elements of
ILM. That's why we work closely with leading technology players to deliver and
end-to-end solutions. Remember, ILM is a strategy for customers, not a single
product. It's a combination of technology, processes and services.

That's why HP also launched seven new services to help customers in their
short, mid and long-term information management strategies. We use the
experience we've gained with Microsoft Exchange wherein HP has installed more
than 14 million MS-Exchange seats, SAP and Oracle (roughly 50% of the SAP
installations and over a third of Oracle databases worldwide run on HP
equipment) to help our customers achieve their strategic ILM goals.

RAHUL GUPTA