The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/116777
best practices Expose, Dispose of and Optimize "Dark" Data by Galina Datskovsky of Autonomy, an HP company Enterprises struggling to reduce the impact of spiraling storage costs or to comply with emerging regulations, such as the HIPAA/HITECH Act, the Dodd-Frank Act and the Presidential Memorandum (Managing Government Records), are looking for solutions to address the challenge of managing "dark" data — the currently unmanaged, and often unknown, electronic information that exists in various repositories across virtually every organization. At the same time, the judiciary is keen to sanction organizations that cannot preserve and produce business content reasonably and accurately in response to a litigation inquiry. To address these requirements, business leaders need to implement and enforce a comprehensive information governance strategy that is legally defensible and does not rely on manual processes or outdated search techniques that potentially could exclude relevant information. Today's Reality IDC, Gartner and other industry analysts continue to predict the explosion of big data with new, unstructured data types to manage. Rich media from social media websites coupled with burgeoning email inboxes, proliferating SharePoint sites and unmanaged file shares challenge the most efficient IT organization, create grave concern for the general counsel and overwhelm the typical knowledge worker, reducing productivity. Even organizations that have not grown significantly through acquisitions are sitting on terabytes, if not petabytes, of dark data. 22 Peer to Peer To complicate matters, social media, mobility and BYOD trends are reshaping many aspects of global business — and complicating the challenge of governing information. Social media and file-sharing services, often running on mobile devices, lie outside the traditional boundaries of the enterprise and create potential exposure; 67 percent of end users have three or more computing platforms, all containing enterprise data that must be protected. This trend shows no sign of abating as users expect more, not less, real-time access to data via applications that are always available, anywhere. Both regulators and the judiciary demand near-instant access to comprehensive information stored across myriad file formats and repositories. Without comprehensive information governance capabilities, businesses face increased costs of discovery due to an inability to manage and govern effectively across all systems, throughout the information's life cycle. Curate the Content How can organizations achieve governance cost effectively and with minimal disruption to the business? Information governance is a process and not a single action, so organizations are wise to set expectations accordingly. But for many, it is difficult to know where to start. Establishing knowledge about what information exists, where it is located and its current status is the first step in developing an informed approach to information governance.