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3 Reasons Why Organizations are Implementing IG Programs

NicoleGrosskopf
Level 1
Employee

During the past year, Veritas has been extremely busy capturing insights into the composition of data that is stored by our customers. Research from the Data Genomics Index identified that information is growing at a rate of 39% each year. Anecdotally, we hear from organizations all that time that they find it challenging to identify what information to keep and what information to delete.

To better understand how organizations are tackling this challenge, we launched a new research initiative targeted at uncovering which tools and tactics organizations use to help alleviate the challenges brought on by the unstructured data explosion. For this new study, we surveyed 481 different organizations across 22 industries.

Our first key finding from the report was that 94% of organizations surveyed have a formal Information Governance program in place. 3_reasons_nicole_preview.jpgTo ensure consistency across the survey population, we defined Information Governance as the following:

Information governance is the activities and technologies that organizations employ to maximize the value of their information while minimizing associated risks and costs.

Honestly, we were surprised to see such a high percentage of respondents with programs in place, but were confident that this signified that breadth of the challenges associated with data growth and the urgency organizations feel about managing their information.

Next, we surveyed what the main drivers were for investing in Information governance.

 #1 Managing risk was a corporate priority

The Global Databerg Report uncovered that organizations hold an average of 52% Dark Data, 33% ROT and 15% of identifiable business critical data. This ROT and dark data adds significant levels of risk and cost to organizations. Potentially, this data may contain high-risk, non-compliant information that if not managed properly could wind up in the wrong hands. And as data keeps growing- this risk continues to rise.

In order to avoid spiraling future data management costs and the risk of sweeping sanctions, companies need to take action. This means illuminating Dark Data, losing the ROT, and encouraging their employees to proactively maintain and manage the data, which is vital to organizations that are investing in Information Governance.

 #2 Needed to demonstrate regulatory compliance

Having so many files and choosing to keep everything is a compliance risk. The Data Genomics Index highlighted that on average 41% of data has not been modified it the past 3 years. On top of that, 12% of that data is ancient- which means that it hasn’t been modified in the past 7 years! If that doesn’t spell out compliance risk, I don’t know what does.

For example, the European Commission’s GDPR, which states that organizations should be able to provide any electronic data as fast as possible or non-compliance will be dealt with by heavy financial penalties - ripple effects that could affect brand integrity and reputation.

By implementing information Governance program, organizations have the ability to sift through their data, decide what is valuable, and what data is a risk to compliance. Assuming control over your organization’s data is a critical practice.

 #3 We learned it is a best practice

Who doesn’t want to reduce costs and risks, be compliant, and extract the most valuable data to create the best decisions for the organization?

All organizations do.

That’s why when organizations learn that their storage environment is cluttered, where the average PB of information contains 2,312,000,000 files; they decide to start taking action to improve the fitness of their data estate.

Now that you’ve learned the top three reasons organizations choose to integrate an information governance platform, let us ask you this:

In the next 8-12 months, which driver do you think will become most important?

Leave a comment below!