System-managed storage is the IBM® automated approach to managing storage resources. It uses software programs to manage data security, placement, migration, backup, recall, recovery, and deletion so that current data is available when needed, space is made available for creating new data and for extending current data, and obsolete data is removed from storage.

You can tailor system-managed storage to your needs. You define the requirements for performance, security, and availability, along with storage management policies used to automatically manage the direct access, tape, and optical devices used by the operating systems.