Organizations today are facing serious challenges in understanding their data environment. The mystery of what data they are storing, where it resides, and its value to the business is causing them to seriously doubt their ability to comply with upcoming data privacy regulations, such as the EU’s GDPR. In fact, our recent survey of 900 senior business decision-makers, confirmed that only 47% of organizations believe they will be GDPR-ready by May 25, 2018, when the regulation goes into effect.
To better understand some of the critical gaps organizations are facing in becoming compliant, we asked survey participants about their top concerns in addressing the GDPR.
Concern #1: Insufficient Toolkit
Almost one-third (32%) of respondents are fearful their current technology stack is unable to manage their data effectively, something that could hinder their ability to search, discover and review data – all essential criteria for GDPR compliance.
Concern #2: Zero Visibility
39 percent of respondents say their organization cannot accurately identify and locate relevant data. This is another critical competency, as the regulation mandates that, when requested, businesses must be able to provide individuals with a copy of their data, or delete it, within a 30-day time frame.
Under GDPR, organizations can retain personal data if it is still being used for the purpose that was notified to the individual concerned when the data was collected, but they must delete personal data when it is no longer needed for that purpose.
Expiring data is concerning because more than 40 percent (42%) of organizations admitted that there is no mechanism in place to determine which data should be saved or deleted based on its value.
Now What?
Overall, Veritas’ research found that less than one third (31%) of respondents believe their organizations are currently GDPR-ready. The result is that many organizations are making significant investments in developing policies and deploying technology to ramp their readiness. For those working towards compliance, seven figure investments are the norm. On average across the 900 survey respondents, firms are forecasting spending in excess of $1.4m on GDPR readiness initiatives by May 25, 2018.
Ultimately, there is no denying that GDPR is approaching. It’s time to act.
Click here to register for our upcoming webcast, 365 Days and Counting…Your Playbook for Accelerating GDPR Readiness. Or click here for more information on how Veritas can help your organization become GDPR compliant.
