VFILM: A Value Function Driven Approach to Information Lifecycle Management

Information Management (IM) services need lifecycle management, i.e., determining how long persistent information is retained locally and when it is moved to accommodate new information. This is important when bridging IM services from enterprise to tactical environments, which can have limited onboard storage and be in highly dynamic situations with varying information needs. In this paper, we describe an approach to Value Function based Information Lifecycle Management (VFILM) that balances the value of existing information to current and future missions with constraints on available storage. VFILM operates in parallel with IM services in dynamic situations where missions and their information needs, the types of information being managed, and the criticality of information to current missions and operations are changing. In contrast to current solutions that simply move the oldest or least frequently accessed information when space is needed, VFILM manages information lifecycle based on a combination of inputs including attributes of the information (its age, size, type, and other observable attributes), ongoing operations and missions, and the relationships between different pieces of information. VFILM has three primary innovative features: (1) a fuzzy logic function that calculates a ordering of information value based on multiple relative valued attributes; (2) mission/task awareness that considers current and upcoming missions in information valuation and storage requirements; and (3) information grouping that treats related information collectively. This paper describes the VFILM architecture, a VFILM prototype that works with Air Force Research Laboratory IM services, and the results of experiments showing VFILM's effectiveness and efficiency.