(Information Life Cycle Management) An umbrella term for a comprehensive storage management program within an enterprise. Also called "data life cycle management" (DLM), it takes into consideration the value of the information over time, how quickly and at what cost it must be made available for user queries and how long it must be retained before being deleted. An ILM implies that all data entered into the system have been assigned a type or category based on access rules, retention requirements and business practices. See storage management and SAN.