Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information

Foreword

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American essayist, philosopher, and poet, once said that the invariable mark of wisdom is seeing the miraculous in the common. Today, common miracles surround us, and it is virtually impossible not to see them. Most of us have modern gadgetry such as digital cameras, video camcorders, cell phones, fast computers that can access millions of websites, instant messaging, social networking sites, search engines, music downloads . . . the list goes on. All of these examples have one thing in common: they generate huge volumes of data. Not only are we in an information age, we're in an age where information is exploding into a digital universe that requires enhanced technology and a new generation of professionals who are able to manage, leverage, and optimize storage and information management solutions.

Just to give you an idea of the challenges we face today, in one year the amount of digital information created, captured, and replicated is millions of times the amount of information in all the books ever written. Information is the most important asset of a business. To realize the inherent power of information, it must be intelligently and efficiently stored, protected, and managed—so that it can be made accessible, searchable, shareable, and, ultimately, actionable.

We are currently in the perfect storm. Everything is increasing: the information, the costs, and the skilled professionals needed to store and manage it—professionals who are not ...