The key characteristic of an independent ASP is its ability to function independently from the rest of the storage on a server. Independent ASPs can also be made available and unavailable at the time of your choosing. The benefits of using independent ASPs in your environment can be significant. You can isolate infrequently used data that does not always need to be available when the system is up and running. If you have a lot of data that is unnecessary for day-to-day business operations, for example, you can isolate it and leave it offline until it is needed. This allows you to shorten processing time for other tasks, such as IPLs, reclaim storage, and system start time.
Additional benefits of independent ASPs allow you to do the following:
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Consolidate applications and data from multiple servers into a single IBM System i allowing for simpler system management and application maintenance.
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Decrease downtime, enabling data on your system to be made available or unavailable without an IPL.
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Add storage as necessary, without having to make the system unavailable.
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Avoid the need to recover all data in the event of a system failure, since the data is isolated.
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Streamline naming conventions, since multiple instances of data with the same object and library names can coexist on a single System i in separate independent ASPs.
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Protect data that is unique to a specific environment by isolating data associated with specific applications from other groups of users.
Using MIMIX provides a robust solution for high availability and disaster recovery for data stored in independent ASPs.