Meaning ● Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), in the context of SMB growth, automation, and implementation, defines the systematic process of strategically managing data and associated information assets from creation or acquisition, through usage, archival, and eventual disposal. ● For a growing SMB, ILM implementation dictates policies and procedures designed to reduce costs associated with storage, legal discovery, and regulatory compliance. ● The focus here is on automating classification processes ensuring relevant data receives the correct retention schedule and storage tier assignment. ● An effective ILM strategy enables SMBs to gain better business intelligence and comply with data governance, data sovereignty rules, regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, while avoiding unnecessary expenditure on high performance or long-term storage for low value data. ● Successful adoption of ILM ensures appropriate data accessibility throughout its usefulness, while concurrently preparing it for secure removal at the end of its business necessity, ultimately maximizing resource allocation and mitigating risks associated with data security and compliance within constrained SMB operational frameworks.
