Developing from the aftermath of a more sensitive political world climate and the public outcry following a series of corporation collapses in Australia and overseas, a slew of new government regulations and requirements have been brought about in numbers previously unseen. Not only are organisations expected to decipher and interpret a number of new regulations that affect their internal controls, but they are also expected to protect their key data assets—whatever the circumstances.

It is no surprise that there is a lot of confusion around data governance issues. Do new regulations in effect pose a business continuity problem, a legal problem, or a technical question? Or do they simply require a process improvement effort?

What is Data Governance?

A modern organisation needs to guarantee the availability of its data and applications, the integrity of the data itself, and its security, whether regulations demand compliance or not. Data governance is about building compliance requirements and associated exposures into the continuity of business operations.

Data governance must address areas such as operations efficiency, compliance with regulations, protection of assets, and operational resiliency. Data has become one of the most important yet intangible assets of most organisations. Actually, it is like individuals, irreplaceable if lost.

Today’s regulatory environment would not have reached the intensity of a “Perfect Storm” if it were not for the seemingly uncontrollable growth of data to levels never seen before in human history. Rather than focusing on the tip of the iceberg or the symptoms associated with non-compliance, translating data governance objectives into a meaningful IT infrastructure is key in today’s economy.

Some key issues to be considered for correct Data Governance are:

• Data must be stored
• Data must be secure
• Data integrity is required
• Data must be managed
• Data must be available when needed
• Offsite requirements are commonplace
• Processes and controls have to be in place

Planning & Implementing Process

Global Storage can help your organisation plan and implement a data governance strategy that takes into consideration these key issues. This process involves understanding your organisations data needs by looking at the following areas:

• Assessing Risk
  Determining the value of your organisations data and translating that into the aggregate loss potential, which is related to either not having, or not having access to, the data.
  
  
• Data Retention
  Analysing what content to keep, for how long, and in what format.
  
  
• Data Security
  Determining the required protection and auditability (proof of authenticity).
  
  
• Data Lifecycle Management
  Providing a solution for managing data through its lifecycle. We do this by understanding the needs of the business and building, managing, and adapting a storage infrastructure to optimise data delivery in support of the applications your organisation relies upon.
  
  
• Content Management
  Understanding your organisations diverse, structured and unstructured data storage requirements created by the content-rich applications in use. Typically, this includes databases, messaging applications, file systems, ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and unstructured content.
  
  
• Storage Management
  Implementing a management solution that can determine how large your organisations storage infrastructure is, how well its resources are being utilised, who is using it, and how they are using it.
  
  
• Business Continuity
  Determining a suitable business continuity plan for your organisation. Options today range from traditional data protection through offsite tape backup, to more sophisticated infrastructures such as remote site data replication, server virtualisation, or clustering.

More Information?

Call Global Storage on 03 9445 3300 and ask for one of our consultants to understand more about Data Governance and the impact this has on your organisation.