Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Unstructured Data Management Takes Center Stage
By Rich Hale, CTO, at ActiveNav
We don't always realize it, but every keystroke we make
becomes a piece of data - whether that be an equation in an end of year
financial Excel report or a funny cat meme to a coworker in a Slack channel.
Each of these actions, multiplied thousands of times per day by the number of
employees you have, leads to an exorbitant amount of data. And the scary thing
is, most companies still don't know what data they have or where it's stored -
especially when it comes to unstructured data, data that isn't easily searchable.
Based on the work ActiveNav
has been doing with clients leading into 2021, we predict a landslide of
concerns will hit enterprises as part of their post-Covid data cleanup. All of the work from new flexible working
practices that's accumulated throughout the year will soon need to be
discoverable. Managing unstructured data will prove increasingly difficult.
Against that backdrop and considering the slew of compliance regulations on the
horizon, below are six predictions for what awaits data management and
compliance pros in 2021.
Every company is a data company. The opportunity for
value creation lies within unstructured data.
In 2021, companies will realize the value that can be
created from their vast stores of accumulated data. Right now, companies
collect, manage, and store massive amounts of data, but much of it is
unstructured (as much as 80% of enterprise data according to Gartner) and
siloed. To be able to identify expansion opportunities, organizations need to
make their information accessible and useable - and this means leveraging
unstructured data.
Enterprises will proactively build automated data inventories.
Smart organizations recognize
the need to build persistent maps of their data to be able to respond to
unexpected events - such as a breach - quickly and efficiently. Organizations that
focus on truly understanding how and where their data is collected and stored
have much of the battle already won. Organizations owe it to their customers to
protect sensitive, personal data, no matter what regulations dictate. Increased
access to large amounts of data, particularly unstructured data, means that
proper governance structures need to be put in place - and it all starts with a
comprehensive, always-on data inventory.
Bolting the doors is not enough.
In 2021, organizations will need to attend to data beyond
just "locking the doors" to prevent access or step egress. While this may have
worked in the past, it is no longer enough. Breaches will happen; it is not a
matter of if, but when. Companies of all sizes need to understand what they
have, where they have it, and most importantly, do this at scale so they can
invest their efforts to protect the right information and properly understand the
risk and impact post-breach.
Data is [still] not the new oil.
Back in 2018 we dispelled the myth that data is
the new oil, and that's going to be truer than ever in 2021. Once you use
oil, it decreases in value. However, the opposite is true for data - the more
you use it, the more valuable it becomes. BUT, data is only valuable if it can
be accessed. Organizations are struggling to understand what data they have,
and where it lives, which is limiting value creation. As a result, the need for
an always-on, dynamic data map will continue to increase, with organizations
looking for a scalable solution to create value and comply with evolving
privacy laws.
Proper data management will become an even bigger competitive
advantage.
For the last 2 decades, the U.S. turned a blind eye toward
data privacy, rejecting its impact as a fundamental human right - diametrically
opposing other regions like the EU. But the pendulum has swung quickly, with
global privacy laws now the norm. In 2021, data
minimization (whether driven by the CCPA, CPRA, or any other regulation)
will become table stakes for any information-driven, risk-aware organization.
Data stewardship will become a boardroom level
conversation.
Just as data
privacy has become a C-Suite discussion over the past couple of years, so too
will data stewardship. Data stewardship fills a growing role as expectations of
enterprise data governance gets increasingly complex. Data stewardship goes
beyond management - it's a higher-level responsibility to
stakeholders. It helps organizations to gain greater
control over their data, understand where it's obtained, and map and use data effectively
while also staying compliant.
Summary
We may not be able to fully predict the future, but we can
almost certainly predict that companies that do not take an active role in
mapping and understanding their data will find themselves in precarious
positions, unable to respond to information events. Remember, you can't manage
what you don't understand. Cheers to making 2021 the year companies get
unstructured data under control.
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About the Author
Rich Hale is the Chief Technology Officer of Active
Navigation where he focuses on developing their market leading File Analysis software.
Rich spent 16 years as a Royal Air Force Engineer Officer deployed around the
world. His career in the Royal Air Force not only spanned over a decade, but
also numerous countries including the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Canada. He
is a product and information evangelist, with experience hard won through many
years' developing information governance programs in enterprise and government
agencies. Rich holds a Bachelor's Honors Degree in Aeronautical Engineering
from London University, as well as a Master's in Business Administration from
the British Open University.