Data allows companies to create new market insights, operational efficiencies and customer experiences. Managing, protecting and utilizing that data can be extremely challenging, however.
Companies often address backup, security, compliance and other data-related issues as distinct disciplines. However, a more holistic approach can help ensure data is accurate, secure and available when needed. The data management professionals at Technologent have developed the following six-part data management framework:
Data Classification
In this process, data is tagged and organized based on shared characteristics such as type, sensitivity and value, allowing companies to mitigate risk based on data value. Typically, data is classified according to three value levels:
- Low sensitivity. Anything intended for public use that would result in little to no risk if disclosed.
- Medium sensitivity. This includes information that can’t necessarily be linked to a specific person but could result in moderate risk to the organization.
- High sensitivity. This includes personally identifiable information (PII), intellectual property, trade secrets, financial statements and more.
Data Insight
Few organizations know where all of their sensitive data resides — studies show that the average organization has data stored in more than a dozen different places. That lack of visibility makes it extremely difficult to secure and protect data. Steps for improving data insight include:
- Identify stale data. Audit repositories to identify inactive data that inflates storage costs and increases security risks.
- Improve data visibility. Use analytics to monitor storage and gain real-time details about data.
- Implement storage tiering. Optimize storage by moving less-valuable data to cheaper storage media.
- Migrate data. Move data to more modern systems or cloud platforms to improve performance and resilience.
Data Security
Confidentiality, availability and integrity — known as the “CIA Triad” — form the three pillars of IT security infrastructure. Confidentiality refers to preventing unauthorized access to data, integrity is about ensuring data has not been tampered with or corrupted, and availability involves ensuring that authorized users can reliably access data resources. Key solutions that support the application of these principles include:
- Identity and access management
- Multifactor authentication
- Encryption
- Immutable backup
- File integrity monitoring software
- Redundant hardware, software and services
- Disaster recovery / business continuity
Data Compliance
Thousands of corporate governance regulations apply to businesses today. Many of them have explicit data protection and management requirements. Meet these requirements requires automation, including:
- Security information and event management. SIEM software collates events and logs to generate reports that meet specific compliance requirements.
- Governance, risk and compliance management. GRC solutions automate essential security and compliance processes, eliminating error-prone manual tasks and reducing the risk of violations.
Data Protection
Data protection is a unique discipline that largely addresses backup and recovery processes, although it also includes a number of other tools. Key data protection tools include:
- RAID storage. Guards against storage media failure with redundant disks.
- Stores the same data in multiple locations to improve availability and resilience.
- Creates a record of the state of a system, server or volume at a precise point in time.
- Long-term retention. Automatically move older data to archive based upon policies.
- Continuous data protection. Automatically backs up applications, files or blocks of data any time a change is made.
Data Privacy
Data privacy deals with how confidential data is collected, shared and used. Data privacy best practices include:
- Minimize data collection. Only collect and store data that is necessary for business operations.
- Maintain transparency. Notify customers up front that their personal information is being collected and allow them to opt out.
- Anonymize data. Mask, modify or remove identifiers that could connect stored data to a specific individual.
Technologent provides a holistic, end-to-end approach to data management. Let us show you how our six-part framework can maximize the value of your data.
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