Five years ago, the world was talking about data governance as a safeguard in a digital economy, with warnings there was no time to lose in getting data governance frameworks in place.
Fast forward to today, and data governance is more critical than ever, particularly as the world settles into a new normal, with emerging technologies going mainstream and data volumes spiking.
Data governance – managing the availability, usability, integrity and security of data – is vital for several reasons, including compliance, trust, security and analytics. Data governance is not just for large enterprises with vast volumes of data – organisations of all sizes should prioritise it.
However, the challenge facing many organisations that did not implement solid data governance frameworks years ago is that data volumes and sources have burgeoned, and organisational perimeters have fallen. Now, organisations are confronted with the management of massive volumes of both structured and unstructured data, travelling across expanded and remote points.
If they have not yet done so, organisations must get to grips with this situation and start work on proper data governance frameworks and organisational structures to support them.
Pandemic catalyses data headache
In early 2020, the world was plunged into chaos, this same chaos that was the single biggest driver of digital and business transformation strategies being implemented that the world had seen.
The measures put into place to curb the effects of COVID-19 had a massive impact on how businesses operate. No longer was brick-and-mortar the official office, but rather, wherever the workforce happened to be located. This called for massive scaling up of connected communities, to avoid complete disruption of the day-to-day workings of the business.
By no small feat, businesses jumped at this opportunity and made it work no matter what. Businesses were able to ensure continuity and survive, and for some, even thrive. But in adapting, data volumes grew and the world became more digitised almost overnight.
In a report conducted by Harvard Business Review, sponsored by Microsoft, it is noted that 90% of the world’s data has been created in the past two years alone. Managing these ever-increasing volumes of data, and security across this new environment, are ranked as top challenges by business leaders.
By no small feat, businesses jumped at this opportunity and made it work no matter what.
At the same time, organisations are looking to generate more data and gain more value from that data. For example, we see manufacturing clients looking to harness their internet of things data to improve maintenance and performance, but also to run ‘what if’ scenarios – such as ‘if we increase sales, will our existing machinery be able to cope?’ Accurate forecasting needs quality data.
Those that had solid data governance frameworks have been able to bring the new data into their frameworks and adapt to the changing environment. But those that were behind the curve have fallen further behind.
With greater volumes and velocity of data and the accelerated speed of business, data governance demands more focus and a bigger spread of responsibility – ideally driven by a dedicated data governance team.
To improve data governance, there are six key steps:
- Identify and classify all of the organisation’s data.
- Enhance data governance policies to meet internal and governmental requirements for security and privacy.
- Create a culture of security and compliance by cultivating organisation-wide awareness and responsibility about the proper handling of data. Data governance is ever-evolving, so it requires a long-term roadmap that should be continuously revisited.
- Create new roles and responsibilities, to strengthen security, risk and compliance strategies. Give ownership of the data to data stewards, allow security teams to implement controls, and do a proper risk analysis.
- Invest in new or enhanced technology to bolster security and monitor compliance with data governance policies. Human error contributes significantly to data loss and breaches, so technologies close this margin for error as well as speeding up processes. These tools are not only for large enterprises – solutions such as the Azure Purview unified data governance solution puts effective data governance into the hands of even small and mid-sized businesses.
- Commit more resources to workforce development, including training and skills development for executives and lower-level staff members. Driven by the governance team, organisations need to expand people’s roles and allocate ownership. Where resources are not available, a managed services partner can guide the organisation through the process, provide a roadmap and train staff to manage data governance effectively.
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