Hierarchical storage management is a system for storing data more securely and cost-effectively. Managing large amounts of data can be challenging. Also, it is essential to store the data to make better business decisions.

The basic concept of hierarchical storage management is to keep the data on the most accurate type of storage media by considering how frequently the data is accessed. If some data is constantly accessed, it is stored in expensive, high-performing storage media. And also, the data not accessed frequently is stored in less expensive low-performance storage media.

It automatically moves the data to different storage tiers based on how frequently it is accessed. The data is stored in a solid-state drive if it is accessed frequently. And it is stored in hard drives if they are not accessed frequently. The HSM is compared to the cache. And also, it is present on most computers’ CPUs.

The hierarchical system management contains three components:

  • Algorithms for managing data: It helps to set which data needs to be stored, how often it is accessed, and the size.
  • Mechanisms for caching data: It is securing and protecting data.
  • Data migration: It defines how the data should be moved between different storage devices based on various factors.

Benefits of Hierarchical Storage Management

It ensures that the frequently accessed data is available on time in high-performance storage. It result in faster data access and improved application performance.

With the help of HSM, any organization can effectively manage and scale their data storage in a fast structure since the data volume gets bigger daily. Moreover, it helps businesses automatically work on data deletion and retention policies to comply with company requirements.

Therefore, Hierarchical storage management help organization save their storage cost by storing less frequently accessed data in low-cost storage software. HSM will facilitate the management of data throughout its life cycle for creating, storing, or deleting the data based on predefined policies.