Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is a set of techniques and technologies available from Oracle that assist in managing the lifecycle of data to support business needs and minimize storage costs. The key to Information Lifecycle Management is working with the business to ensure that data that the business regards as active is available on appropriate hardware whilst data that is less active or dormant, in terms of business activity, is managed in an effective way in terms of storage costs.

Data in the product is added and updated by the business on an ongoing basis. Over time, this data grows and the business activity on individual data will vary with its timeliness, business activity and data retention policies. As data becomes less active in terms of the business, it needs to be stored in a cost-effective way to ensure cost minimization whilst allowing the business to access the data as needed for analysis or auditing purposes.

As the Oracle Database stores and manages data on an ongoing basis, therefore it is logical that Information Lifecycle Management uses the built-in database processes and procedures to offer effective storage management solutions to manage that data.