| Data management is a complex, distributed problem that frustrates both the individuals that create and use data and individuals responsible for managing the infrastructure on which the data resides. Locating a file in a traditional enterprise storage system requires a user to know where data physically resides; users, therefore, must have knowledge of machine specific hierarchies to locate data. The Corporate File Manager's data centric abstraction layer provides a view of data that is common to all data stakeholders, both business users and IT users. The logical folder system is independent of machine specific hierarchy, physical location of data, and underlying storage infrastructure. The diagram below depicts how an end-user would view the file system with the data abstraction layer (right) and without (left). With the data abstraction layer, a user needs no knowledge of a files physical location. The logical folder system separates how users navigate data from where data actually resides, and in so doing, physical disk space no longer constrains where a file is located in the logical file system. |
