IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is a full-featured and flexible backup and recovery solution and the core of IBM’s Data Storage Management Solution set. TSM delivers plenty of options and modules, but integrates few of them into the core offering.

History of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

TSM was originally developed by IBM in 1993 as Adstar Distributed Storage Manager (ADSM). After acquiring Tivoli in 1996, IBM moved ADSM under the Tivoli umbrella, but the Adstar brand wasn’t dropped until 1999. IBM’s main interest in developing Storage Manager was the ability to back up remote locations as well as the local office. This has become a common feature among backup vendors, and TSM still supports connection via Internet, WAN, LAN, and SAN.

Tivoli Storage Manager Today

As with most of the major vendors, IBM refreshed their product in 2007 by releasing Version 5.5 in November. There are three editions of TSM: Standard, Express (better suited to smaller enterprises), and Extended Edition (more focus on disaster recovery and marketed to larger enterprises).