Information Storage and

Management Version 3
Student Guide

Education Services
August 2015
 Welcome to Information Storage and Management Version 3.

Copyright ©2015 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Published in the USA. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date.
The information is subject to change without notice.

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EMC, EMC² AccessAnywhere Access Logix, AdvantEdge, AlphaStor, AppSync ApplicationXtender, ArchiveXtender, Atmos, Authentica, Authentic Problems,
Automated Resource Manager, AutoStart, AutoSwap, AVALONidm, Avamar, Bus-Tech, Captiva, Catalog Solution, C-Clip, Celerra, Celerra Replicator, Centera,
CenterStage, CentraStar, EMC CertTracker. CIO Connect, ClaimPack, ClaimsEditor, Claralert ,cLARiiON, ClientPak, CloudArray, Codebook Correlation Technology,
Common Information Model, Compuset, Compute Anywhere, Configuration Intelligence, Configuresoft, Connectrix, Constellation Computing, EMC ControlCenter,
CopyCross, CopyPoint, CX, DataBridge , Data Protection Suite. Data Protection Advisor, DBClassify, DD Boost, Dantz, DatabaseXtender, Data Domain, Direct Matrix
Architecture, DiskXtender, DiskXtender 2000, DLS ECO, Document Sciences, Documentum, DR Anywhere, ECS, elnput, E-Lab, Elastic Cloud Storage,
EmailXaminer, EmailXtender , EMC Centera, EMC ControlCenter, EMC LifeLine, EMCTV, Enginuity, EPFM. eRoom, Event Explorer, FAST, FarPoint, FirstPass, FLARE,
FormWare, Geosynchrony, Global File Virtualization, Graphic Visualization, Greenplum, HighRoad, HomeBase, Illuminator , InfoArchive, InfoMover, Infoscape, Infra,
InputAccel, InputAccel Express, Invista, Ionix, ISIS,Kazeon, EMC LifeLine, Mainframe Appliance for Storage, Mainframe Data Library, Max Retriever, MCx, MediaStor
, Metro, MetroPoint, MirrorView, Multi-Band Deduplication,Navisphere, Netstorage, NetWorker, nLayers, EMC OnCourse, OnAlert, OpenScale, Petrocloud, PixTools,
Powerlink, PowerPath, PowerSnap, ProSphere, ProtectEverywhere, ProtectPoint, EMC Proven, EMC Proven Professional, QuickScan, RAPIDPath, EMC RecoverPoint,
Rainfinity, RepliCare, RepliStor, ResourcePak, Retrospect, RSA, the RSA logo, SafeLine, SAN Advisor, SAN Copy, SAN Manager, ScaleIO Smarts, EMC Snap,
SnapImage, SnapSure, SnapView, SourceOne, SRDF, EMC Storage Administrator, StorageScope, SupportMate, SymmAPI, SymmEnabler, Symmetrix, Symmetrix
DMX, Symmetrix VMAX, TimeFinder, TwinStrata, UltraFlex, UltraPoint, UltraScale, Unisphere, Universal Data Consistency, Vblock, Velocity, Viewlets, ViPR, Virtual
Matrix, Virtual Matrix Architecture, Virtual Provisioning, Virtualize Everything, Compromise Nothing, Virtuent, VMAX, VMAXe, VNX, VNXe, Voyence, VPLEX, VSAM-
Assist, VSAM I/O PLUS, VSET, VSPEX, Watch4net, WebXtender, xPression, xPresso, Xtrem, XtremCache, XtremSF, XtremSW, XtremIO, YottaYotta, Zero-Friction
Enterprise Storage.

Revision Date: August 2015

Revision Number: MR-1VP-ISMv3-1504

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 1
 Information Storage and Management (ISM) is a unique course that provides a comprehensive
understanding of the various storage infrastructure components in data center environments. It
enables participants to make informed decisions on storage-related technologies in an
increasingly complex IT environment, which is fast changing with the adoption of software-defined
infrastructure management and third platform technologies (cloud, Big Data, social, and mobile
technologies). It provides a strong understanding of storage technologies and prepares
participants for advanced concepts, technologies, and processes. Participants will learn the
architectures, features, and benefits of intelligent storage systems including block-based, file-
based, object-based, and unified storage; software-defined storage; storage networking
technologies such as FC SAN, IP SAN, and FCoE SAN; business continuity solutions such as
backup and replication; the highly-critical areas of information security; and storage infrastructure
management. This course takes an open-approach to describe all the concepts and technologies,
which are further illustrated and reinforced with EMC-related product examples.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 2
Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 3
Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 4
Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 5
Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 6
Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Course Introduction 7
 This module focuses on digital data, the types of digital data, and information. This module also
focuses on data center and its key characteristics. Further this module focuses on the key data
center management processes. Finally, this module focuses on the evolution of computing
platforms.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 1
 We live in a digital universe – a world that is created and defined by software. A massive amount
of digital data is continuously generated, collected, stored, and analyzed through software in the
digital universe. According to the 2014 Digital Universe Study conducted by International Data
Corporation (IDC), it is estimated that the digital universe produces approximately 4.4 trillion
gigabytes (GB) of data annually, which is doubling every two years. By these estimates, it is
projected that by the year 2020, the digital universe will expand to 44 trillion GB of data. The
data in the digital universe comes from diverse sources, including individuals living and working
online, organizations employing information technology (IT) to run their businesses, and from a
variety of “smart” electronic devices connected to the Internet.

In organizations, the volume and importance of information for business operations continue to
grow at astounding rates. Individuals constantly generate and consume information through
numerous activities, such as web searches, e-mails, uploading and downloading content and
sharing media files. The rapid proliferation of online social networking and Internet-enabled
smartphones and tablets has also contributed significantly to the growth of the digital universe.

The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) is also gradually adding to the growth of the digital
universe. The IoT is a technology trend wherein “smart” devices with embedded electronics,
software, and sensors exchange data with other devices over the Internet. Examples of such
devices are wearable gadgets – smartwatches and fitness activity trackers; electronic sensors –
temperature sensors and heart monitoring implants; and household appliances – televisions,
thermostats, and lighting. The IoT has vast applications and is driving the development of several
innovative technology solutions. Some application areas include weather monitoring – remote
monitoring and analysis of temperature and atmospheric conditions; healthcare – health
monitoring devices can enable doctors to remotely monitor patients and be notified in case of
emergencies; and infrastructure management – technicians can remotely monitor equipment and
proactively schedule repair activities for maintenance crews.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 2
 Organizations have become increasingly information-dependent in the twenty-first century, and
information must be available whenever and wherever it is required. It is critical for users and
applications to have continuous, fast, reliable, and secure access to information for business
operations to run as required. Some examples of such organizations and processes include
banking and financial institutions, government departments, online retailers, airline reservations,
billing and transaction processing, social networks, stock trading, scientific research, and
healthcare.

It is essential for organizations to store, protect, process, and manage information in an efficient
and cost-effective manner. Legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations regarding the
availability, retention, and protection of data further add to the challenges of storing and
managing information.

Organizations also face newer challenges in the form of requirement to extract value from the
information generated in the digital universe. Information can be leveraged to identify
opportunities to transform and enhance businesses and gain a competitive edge. For example, an
online retailer may need to identify the preferred product types and brands of customers by
analyzing their search, browsing, and purchase patterns. The retailer can then maintain a
sufficient inventory of popular products, and also advertise relevant products to the existing and
potential customers. Furthermore, the IoT is expected to lead to new consumer and business
behavior in the coming years creating new business opportunities.

To meet all these requirements and more, organizations are increasingly undertaking digital
transformation initiatives to implement intelligent storage solutions. These solutions not only
enable efficient and optimized storage and management of information, but also enable extraction
of value from information to derive new business opportunities, gain a competitive advantage,
and create new sources of revenue.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 3
 A generic definition of data is that it is a collection of facts, typically collected for the purpose of
analysis or reference. Data can exist in a variety of forms such as facts stored in a person's mind,
photographs and drawings, alphanumeric text and images in a book, a bank ledger, and tabled
results of a scientific survey. Originally, data is the plural form of “datum”. However, data is now
generally treated as a singular or mass noun representing a collection of facts and figures. This is
especially true when referring to digital data.

In computing, digital data is a collection of facts that is transmitted and stored in electronic form,
and processed through software. Digital data is generated by various devices, such as desktops,
laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and electronic sensors. It is stored as strings of binary values (0s
and 1s) on a storage medium that is either internal or external to the devices generating or
accessing the data. The storage devices may be of different types, such as magnetic, optical, or
solid state storage devices. Examples of digital data are electronic documents, text files, e-mails,
e-books, digital images, digital audio, and digital video.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 4
 Based on how it is stored and managed, digital data can be broadly classified as either structured
data or unstructured data. Structured data is organized in fixed fields within a record or file. For
data to be structured, a data model is required. A data model specifies the format for organizing
data, and also specifies how different data elements are related to each other. For example, in a
relational database, data is organized in rows and columns within named tables. Semi-structured
data does not have a formal data model but has an apparent, self-describing pattern and
structure that enable its analysis. Examples of semi-structured data include spreadsheets that
have a row and column structure, and XML files that are defined by an XML schema. Quasi-
structured data consists of textual data with erratic data formats, and can be formatted with
effort, software tools, and time. An example of quasi-structured data is a “clickstream” or
“clickpath” that includes data about which webpages a user visited and in what order – which is
the result of the successive mouse clicks the user made. A clickstream shows when a user
entered a website, the pages viewed, the time spent on each page, and when the user exited.
Unstructured data does not have a data model and is not organized in any particular format.
Some examples of unstructured data include text documents, PDF files, e-mails, presentations,
images, and videos.

As indicated by the figure on the slide, the majority, which is more than 90 percent, of the data
generated in the digital universe today is non-structured data (semi-, quasi-, and unstructured).
Although the figure shows four different and separate types of data, in reality a mixture of these
is typically generated. For instance, in a call center for customer support of a software product, a
classic relational database management system (RDBMS) may store call logs with structured data
such as date/time stamps, machine types, and problem type entered by the support desk person.
In addition, there may be unstructured or semi-structured data, such as an e-mail ticket of the
problem, call log information, or the actual call recording.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 5
 The terms “data” and “information” are closely related and it is common for the two to be used
interchangeably. However, it is important to understand the difference between the two. Data, by
itself, is simply a collection of facts that needs to be processed for it to be useful. For example a
set of annual sales figures of an organization is data. When data is processed and presented in a
specific context it can be interpreted in a useful manner. This processed and organized data is
called information. For example, when the annual sales data is processed into a sales report, it
provides useful information, such as the average sales for a product (indicating product demand
and popularity), and a comparison of the actual sales to the projected sales. Information thus
creates knowledge and enables decision-making.

As discussed previously, processing and analyzing data is vital to any organization. It enables
organizations to derive value from data, and create intelligence to enable decision-making and
organizational effectiveness. It is easier to process structured data due to its organized form. On
the other hand, processing non-structured data and extracting information from it using
traditional applications is difficult, time-consuming, and requires considerable resources. New
architectures, technologies, and techniques (described in Module 2, ‘Third Platform Technologies’)
have emerged that enable storing, managing, analyzing, and deriving value from unstructured
data coming from numerous sources.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 6
 In a computing environment, storage devices (or simply “storage”) are devices consisting of non-
volatile recording media on which information can be persistently stored. Storage may be internal
(for example, internal hard drive), removable (for example, memory cards), or external (for
example, magnetic tape drive) to a compute system. Based on the nature of the storage media
used, storage devices can be broadly classified as given below:

• Magnetic storage devices: For example, hard disk drive and magnetic tape drive.

• Optical storage devices: For example, Blu-ray, DVD, and CD.

• Flash-based storage devices: For example, solid state drive (SSD), memory card, and USB
thumb drive (or pen drive).

Storage is a core component in an organization’s IT infrastructure. Various factors such as the

media, architecture, capacity, addressing, reliability, and performance influence the choice and
use of storage devices in an enterprise environment. For example, disk drives and SSDs are used
for storing business-critical information that needs to be continuously accessible to applications;
whereas, magnetic tapes and optical storage are typically used for backing up and archiving data.
The different types of storage devices are covered in Module 3, ‘Data Center Environment’.

In enterprise environments, information is typically stored on storage systems (or storage

“arrays”). A storage system is a hardware component that contains a group of
homogeneous/heterogeneous storage devices assembled within a cabinet. These enterprise-class
storage systems are designed for high capacity, scalability, performance, reliability, and security
to meet business requirements. The compute systems that run business applications are provided
storage capacity from storage systems. Storage systems are covered in Module 4, ‘Intelligent
Storage Systems (ISS)’. Organizations typically house their IT infrastructure, including compute
systems, storage systems, and network equipment within a data center.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 7
 A data center is a dedicated facility where an organization houses, operates, and maintains back-
end IT infrastructure including compute systems, storage systems, and network equipment along
with other supporting infrastructure. A data center centralizes an organization’s IT equipment and
data-processing operations, and is vital for carrying out business operations.

A data center typically comprises the following:

• Facility: It is the building and floor space where the data center is constructed. It typically has
a raised floor with ducts underneath holding power and network cables.

• IT equipment: It includes equipment such as compute systems, storage systems, network

equipment and cables, and cabinets for housing the IT equipment.

• Support infrastructure: It includes all the equipment necessary to securely sustain the
functioning of the data center. Some key support equipment are power equipment including
uninterruptible power sources, and power generators; environmental control equipment
including fire and water detection systems, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC)
systems; and security systems including biometrics, keycard, and video surveillance systems.

An organization may build a data center to provide open access to applications over the Internet,
or for privately executing business applications within its operational environment. A data center
may be constructed in-house and located in an organization’s own facility, or it may be
outsourced, with equipment being located at a third-party site. Large organizations often maintain
multiple data centers to distribute data-processing workloads and for disaster recovery.

Organizations are increasingly focusing on energy-efficient technologies and efficient management

practices to reduce the energy consumption of data centers and lessen the impact on the
environment. Such data centers are called as “green data centers”.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 8
 Data centers are designed and built to fulfill the key characteristics shown in the figure on the
slide. Although the characteristics are applicable to almost all data center components, the
discussion here primarily focuses on storage systems.

• Availability: Availability of information as and when required should be ensured. Unavailability

of information can severely affect business operations, lead to substantial financial losses, and
damage the reputation of an organization.

• Security: Policies and procedures should be established, and control measures should be
implemented to prevent unauthorized access to and alteration of information.

• Capacity: Data center operations require adequate resources to efficiently store and process
large and increasing amounts of data. When capacity requirements increase, additional
capacity should be provided either without interrupting the availability or with minimal
disruption. Capacity may be managed by adding new resources or by reallocating existing
resources.

• Scalability: Organizations may need to deploy additional resources such as compute systems,
new applications, and databases to meet the growing requirements. Data center resources
should scale to meet the changing requirements, without interrupting business operations.

• Performance: Data center components should provide optimal performance based on the
required service levels.

• Data integrity: Data integrity refers to mechanisms, such as error correction codes or parity
bits, which ensure that data is stored and retrieved exactly as it was received.

• Manageability: A data center should provide easy, flexible, and integrated management of all
its components. Efficient manageability can be achieved through automation for reducing
manual intervention in common, repeatable tasks.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 9
 The activities carried out to ensure the efficient functioning of a data center can be broadly
categorized under the following key management processes:

• Monitoring: It is a continuous process of gathering information on various resources in the

data center. The process involves monitoring parameters such as configuration, availability,
capacity, performance, and security of resources.

• Reporting: It is a process of collating and presenting the monitored parameters such as

resource performance, capacity, and utilization of resources. Reporting enables data center
managers to analyze and improve the utilization of data center resources and identify
problems. It also helps in establishing business justifications and chargeback of costs
associated with data center operations.

• Provisioning: It is the process of configuring and allocating the resources that are required to
carry out business operations. For example, compute systems are provisioned to run
applications and storage capacity is provisioned to a compute system. Provisioning primarily
includes resource management activities to meet capacity, availability, performance, and
security requirements.

• Planning: It is a process of estimating the amount of IT resources required to support

business operations and meet the changing resource requirements. Planning leverages the
data collected during monitoring and enables improving the overall utilization and performance
of resources. It also enables estimation of future resource requirements. Data center managers
also determine the impact of incidents and devise contingency plans to resolve them.

• Maintenance: It is a set of standard repeatable activities for operating the data center. It
involves ensuring the proper functioning of resources and resolving incidents such as
malfunctions, outages, and equipment loss. It also involves handling identified problems or
issues within the data center and incorporating changes to prevent future problem occurrence.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 10
 In general, the term “platform” refers to hardware and software that are associated with a
particular computing architecture deployed in a data center. Computing platforms evolve and
grow with advances and changes in technology. The figure on the slide displays the three
computing platforms of IT growth as specified by IDC. The first platform (or Platform 1) dates
back to the dawn of computing and was primarily based on mainframes and terminals. The
second platform (or Platform 2) emerged with the birth of the personal computer (PC) in the
1980s and was defined by the client-server model, Ethernet, RDBMSs, and web applications. The
third platform (or Platform 3) of today comprises cloud, Big Data, mobile, and social technologies.

Each computing platform is defined not so much by the comprising technologies but by the scale
of users and the scope of applications the technologies enable. The first platform supported
millions of users, with applications and solutions in the low thousands. The second platform
supported hundreds of millions of users and tens of thousands of applications. The third platform
is already supporting a user base of billions and has millions of applications and solutions. This is
evident from the fact that over 2.4 billion people (~36 percent of the world's population) are
currently connected to the Internet (more than half of them through mobile devices), and that
there are over one million applications available for iOS and Android devices alone.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 11
 Mainframes are compute systems with very large processing power, memory, and storage
capacity and are primarily used for centrally hosting mission-critical applications and databases in
an organization’s data center. Multiple users simultaneously connect to mainframes through less-
powerful devices, such as workstations or terminals. All processing is performed on the
mainframe, while the terminals only provide an interface to use the applications and view results.
Although mainframes offer high reliability and security, there are several cost concerns associated
with them. Mainframes have high acquisition costs, and considerable floor space and energy
requirements. Deploying mainframes in a data center may involve substantial capital expense
(CAPEX) and operating expense (OPEX). Historically, large organizations such as banks, insurance
agencies, and government departments have used mainframes to run their business operations.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 12
 The client-server model uses a distributed application architecture, in which a compute system
called “server” runs a program that provides services over a network to other programs running
on various end-point devices called “clients”. Server programs receive requests for resources from
client programs and in response to the requests, the clients receive access to resources, such as
e-mail applications, business applications, web applications, databases, files, and printers. Client
devices can be desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Clients typically communicate with servers
over a LAN or WAN, with users making use of either a client application or a web interface on a
browser.

In the client-server model, both the clients and the servers may have distinct processing tasks
that they routinely perform. For example, a client may run the business application while the
server may run the database management system (DBMS) to manage storage and retrieval of
information to and from a database. This is called a two-tier architecture. Alternatively, a client
may use an application or web interface to accept information while the server runs another
application that processes the information and sends the data to a second server that runs the
DBMS. This is called the three-tier architecture. This distributed application architecture can be
extended to any number of tiers (n-tier architecture). Because both client and server systems are
intelligent devices, the client-server model is completely different from the mainframe model.

The figure on the slide shows an example of the client-server model. In the example, clients
interact with the web server using a web browser. The web server processes client requests
through HTTP and delivers HTML pages. The application server hosts a business application and
the database server hosts a DBMS. The clients interact with the application server through client
software. The application server communicates with the database server to retrieve information
and provide results to the clients. In some implementations, applications and databases may even
be hosted on the same server.

(Cont’d)

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 13
 Some challenges with the client-server model are associated with creation of IT silos,
maintenance overhead, and scalability issues. In organizations, it is common for business
units/departments to have their own servers running business applications. This leads to the
creation of application and information silos (individual, disparate systems). Silos make it difficult
to efficiently utilize or share IT resources, and are challenging to manage and integrate. Though
the cost of server hardware is considerably less than mainframes, there is still a significant OPEX
involved in maintenance of multiple servers and clients, and the software running on them.
Furthermore, in this model, it is challenging to meet today’s rapid growth in users, information,
and applications workloads. Adding more servers does not necessarily lead to better workload
management. It is also necessary to optimally distribute processing and application logic across
servers and application instances.

Note: In general, a compute system is a device with an operating system (OS) that runs
applications. Physical servers, hosts, desktops, laptops, and mobile devices are examples of
compute systems. In this course, the term compute system or compute is used to refer to
physical servers and hosts on which business applications of an organization are deployed.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 14
 The term “third platform” was coined by IDC, and Gartner refers to the same as a “nexus of
forces”. The third platform is built on a foundation of cloud, Big Data, mobile, and social
technologies. These are the four major “disruptive” technologies that are significantly
transforming businesses, economies, and lives globally.

At its core, the third platform has the cloud that enables a consumer to provision IT resources as
a service from a cloud provider. Big Data enables analytics that create deeper insights from data
for improved decision-making. Mobile devices enable pervasive access to applications and
information. Social technologies connect individuals, and enable collaboration and information
exchange.

Over the past three decades, it was essential for organizations to intelligently leverage the second
platform for their businesses. According to IDC, over the next three decades, the third platform
will represent the basis for solution development and business innovation. The third platform is
being used for the digital transformation, evolution, and expansion of all industries and for
developing major new sources of competitive advantage. Business strategists, IT leaders, and
solution developers are already building disruptive new business models and consumer services
around third platform technologies.

Third platform technologies are an enhancement of second platform technologies rather than a
substitution. A key aspect of third platform is that it is a convergence of cloud, Big Data, mobile,
and social technologies and not just each technology taken in isolation. The real key is combining
two or more of the technologies to create high-value industry solutions known as “mashups”. For
example, some of the top drivers of cloud include social and mobile solutions. This means that
organizations already see the greatest value in solutions that are mashups across all four
technologies. The combinations of third platform technologies are already transforming
organizations such as retail, financial services, government departments, telecommunications,
and healthcare.

(Cont’d)

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 15
 According to IDC, it is estimated that currently over 80 percent of the infrastructure and
applications in most data centers belong to the second platform. Second platform technologies
also currently account for 74 percent of worldwide IT spending. This means that for organizations
that have a significant investment in second platform technologies, an immediate and complete
shift to the third platform may not be cost-effective and practical. This has led to an intermediate
computing platform called “Platform 2.5”, between the second and third platforms. Platform 2.5
includes the solutions and technologies that enable organizations to bridge the gap between the
second and third platforms. Platform 2.5 technologies enable organizations to use a combination
of second and third platform technologies. Organizations would be able to deliver second platform
applications and build third platform outcomes without duplicating and moving data. For example,
platform 2.5 technologies would allow an organization to run second platform applications using
traditional data structures and protocols, while enabling the same data to be leveraged for
analytics using Big Data technologies.

IDC predicts that future global IT spending will primarily focus on segments such as wireless data,
smartphones and tablets, cloud services, Big Data analytics, and IoT. This spending is estimated
to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars in each of the segments. This indicates the growing
industry trend towards the large-scale adoption of third platform technologies. It is estimated that
by 2020 third platform technologies would account for over 40 percent of IT spending. Module 2
covers third platform technologies.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 16
 This module covered digital data, the types of digital data, and information. This module also
covered data center and its key characteristics. Further, this module covered the key data center
management processes. Finally, this module covered the evolution of computing platforms.

Copyright 2015 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module 1: Introduction to Information Storage 17