Predictability, manageability, risk, cost efficiency, and alignment have always been key concerns of the IT executive. Today, with the rapid growth in enterprise storage and the various supporting technologies, the Storage Manager has similar concerns exacerbated by the ever increasing complexity and cost of storage management, even while storage hardware costs are reducing. What is needed is a discipline to contain and even reduce storage management costs while aligning with and improving service levels to the business units. The Storage Management LifecycleSM (SML)framework provides such a discipline. Based on experience with over 400 engagements in the enterprise storage environment, the SML framework has been under continuous development and now reflects industry standards and best practice in effective storage management.