Egnyte
released its
2021 Data Governance Trends Report. The report
is based on a survey of 400 IT executives conducted in July 2021, examining the
challenges of securing and governing unstructured content in today's hybrid and
remote work environments.
A key finding of the research is that
unchecked data growth, combined with a lack of visibility, is increasing the
risk of breaches, ransomware, and compliance violations dramatically. More than
half of companies (52%) use more than ten sanctioned file storage repositories,
and 40% report unsanctioned cloud storage in use across the organisation, as
well as rampant use of informal
repositories like email, Slack, and DocuSign.
"Companies are struggling with how to
get a handle on the vast amounts of unstructured data they generate, and this
is going to continue as the new hybrid work model proceeds into 2022," said Kris Lahiri, Co-Founder and Chief
Security Officer at Egnyte. "IT executives are forced to look for new
solutions that can meet their growing needs to house and analyse those
unstructured data sets and keep their content safe no matter where it is
accessed."
With companies continuing to see their
data expand, six major trends emerged in the 2021 Data Governance Trends
report:
- Remote work remains a reality: 88% said employees will work remotely at least some of
the time throughout 2022.
- Content sprawl is creating more risk:
100% of IT leaders say data is stored in informal repositories like email,
collaboration portals, and local devices. They also rate these among the
hardest to secure.
- Ransomware is in the spotlight: Ransomware
is now the top security concern for larger companies (1,000+ employees). 25% of
all IT leaders say this is their biggest worry.
- The impact of ransomware divides IT leaders: Concerns about being locked out of company data is nearly matched by
worries over data being publicly exposed.
- Small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are at a security disadvantage: With 80% of respondents planning to invest in new security
solutions, SMBs are far less likely to have the tools in place and resources to
implement them, moving forward.
- The future of AI in security is unclear:
Almost all respondents (99%) plan to implement AI applications within the next
year, however more than two-thirds of respondents say leadership isn't ready to
fully commit to AI.
Read the full Data Governance Trends
report here: report link. For a detailed overview of the
report results from the Egnyte team, join the Egnyte
Exchange Global Summit on October 5, 2021.