In today's dynamic world of storage management, data needs to be liquid. In a typical month in medium to large IT shops, multiple projects will arise that require data currently on storage device A to be moved or copied to storage device B. Storage upgrades, application testing, and storage tiering projects are but a few examples. Despite the fact that moving data between (often heterogeneous) disk hardware is a common problem, most IT organizations do not have safe, easy, and inexpensive ways to get the job done without unduly impacting the users of the data.

This paper explains why data liquidity matters to enterprise IT operations, and discusses the significant technical hurdles to be overcome in achieving it.