Predictive Information Governance: Getting The Right Data To The Right People At The Right Timeby Dean Gonsowski, RecommindFundamentally, data growth. All of the “three Vs” of big data – not only volume but also velocity and variety – are at play. It is relatively easy to account for greater volumes of data, from megabytes to gigabytes and even to terabytes, but it is far more challenging to cope with the complexity that arises from different types of data such as blogs, Wikis and social media, complexity that is exponentially increased by the various platforms and devices. And, these different forms of data are moving very quickly.
So while the three Vs are creating many opportunities in the realm of big data, on the governance side they are posing overwhelming challenges. Beyond the three Vs, companies are realizing that the risk associated with information has become very severe; at the same time, while much information has value, in many cases, that value is very short-lived. A particular PowerPoint presentation, for example, may be useful for a month, but the risks associated with that information in terms of regulatory inquiry, litigation, privacy and security extend well beyond that window of usefulness – and so do the storage and maintenance costs of keeping it, particularly as it is moved to back-up media and legacy systems. Information governance is the challenge of optimizing the value of your information while controlling the risks and the costs associated with that same piece of information.