IBM Spruces Up Compliance

Taking advantage of compliance regulations to pursue new revenue streams,
IBM said it has created a new storage device and software
packages to make it easier for businesses to meet record retention policies.

Increasingly, enterprises who trade in valuable information are making sure
they retain data for specific periods of time, in accordance with Basel II,
Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA mandates.

To capitalize on this need, IBM has crafted the IBM TotalStorage DR550,
which uses Power5 processors, to speed up data storage, while serving as a
central point of control for data, said Alan Stuart, chief strategist and
business line executive for IBM’s data retention solutions.

Supported by IBM Tivoli Data Storage for Data Retention, the machine stores up to 56 terabytes of data. Entry-level pricing for the machine, available November 24, is $81,000 and scales up to about $500,000 depending on configurations.

The Armonk, N.Y., vendor has also made enhancements to its TotalStorage tape
line, attaching the IBM 3494 B10 and B20 Virtual Tape Server (VTS) to the
TotalStorage 3592 Tape Drive to let customers archive data for a long period
of time.

Such improvements are evidence of Big Blue’s evolving information lifecycle
management (ILM) strategy to manage data from its creation until its
disposal. EMC , Hitachi Data Systems ,
StorageTek and others are following similar paths to ILM.

While EMC is largely credited with getting the ball rolling with regard to
compliance products underpinned by ILM, IBM launched
its first major series of risk and compliance offerings a year ago this
month.

Billed as part of IBM’s Risk and Compliance Framework, Stuart told
internetnews.com new software packages include the IBM Solution for
Compliance in a Regulated Environment, or SCORE, which is geared to make it
easier and more cost-effective for life sciences companies to reduce cycle
time for trials and to analyze and correct manufacturing data faster.

SCORE will be available in the first quarter of 2005.

Designed for the financial services sector, IBM Bank Data Warehousing
Software (BDW) is a single data repository for companies faced with the
requirements for reporting procedures, supporting Basel II and
Sarbanes-Oxley. It will be ready for sale October 29.

IBM’s eForms & Records Management Solution for Government uses IBM Tivoli
identity management software and VeriSign authentication technology to help
agencies create, digitally sign, archive and retrieve electronic forms, thereby
mitigating the risk of litigation.

This push for compliance management and protocols is directly tied to the
regulations installed in the past couple of years. Research firms such as
Gartner maintain that companies that have some sort of compliance regimen in
place could spend as much as half of what enterprises typically spend to
corral data.