6 Chapter 6. Software to simplify managing your storage systems This chapter provides basic information about software that simplifies managing your storage subsystems. These software tools can help you become more productive in your storage environment. We describe in this chapter how IBM TotalStorage and IBM Tivoli products can help you get answers to questions you may have concerning your storage environment. Questions such as: What is our average storage utilization? When and where will we need additional storage resources? Where do we have potential problems in our storage environment which may become severe problems soon? What kind of data is filling up our disks? Which files stored on the disks are still in use? Which files are old and can be moved to less expensive storage? The answers to these questions can help you to: Project storage growth Identify growth hotspots Identify data patterns that are key to business processes Identify data patterns that are counterproductive to the business goals or data that can be stored on less costly storage Help you to reduce or control your storage budget Concerning backup and disaster recovery, these questions may be on your mind: Which data is not being backed up? How much total storage does this application need online and for backup? © Copyright IBM Corp. 2006. All rights reserved. 111