The Case for Streamlining Data
Do you know what data you have? Where it is and who uses it?
No, then you need to read this blog!
It is not easy to understand where unstructured data exists in the enterprise. There can be massive volumes of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and emails, all typically scattered about the organisation. And this represents not only a major security weakness but an expensive one at that, which now, in COVID times, means that data could be in places your organisation does not control, such as Dropbox. This is where the term ‘Shadow IT’ has come from. All these diverse locations for data and its volume represents not only a major security weakness but an expensive one at that.
Having huge amounts of data scattered across the enterprise can result in heavy costs in terms of storage, whether in data centres or third party storage facilities.
Add to that, the requirements of GDPR and, in particular, Subject Access Requests (SAR’s), and you can see what a nightmare situation unstructured data storage can become.
Data classification systems are the answer. They are able to take the challenge down to a focused data set of in-scope data, that can amount to only 10 to 20% of the entire environment. They can ensure that all personal data is found, using a more efficient and targeted approach, which could result in a saving of some 40% in storage capacity and removing risky data from shadow IT locations.
Indexing file properties including activity logs, who has accessed what, and ACLs, who has read/write/browse permissions to specific files, facilitates a proactive approach to data protection. Combining in-depth monitoring and active controls to confine any suspicious activity before it becomes a risk is key, for example, a Ransomware attack.
Personal data can be managed according to the data owner’s request. Deleting, migrating, archiving, restricting, and correcting content.
Capturing sensitive data that is no longer needed on the primary storage network, but must be maintained for long-term retention requirements, can be moved to an archive that can be easily managed and will ensure sensitive data is not left unprotected on the network. Retention policies can be defined, and compliance teams can easily search and manage the content.
Without an integrated approach, there will be too many aspects to the workflow and too many areas that can fail when managing significant volumes of personal data.
Knowing what data is held, where it is and who uses it, is key to good data management. Without it, data storage will simply grow and grow, cluttering the network and costing vast amounts in storage solutions or worse still, data being held in multiple silos to keep costs down but, with the inevitable situation of data loss.
So, streamline data handling today, before it gets out of control.
Every organisation can benefit from added protection. Call us on 0844 586 0040, or email [email protected] and we’ll be happy to advise you.
