Page 11 - EngineerIt July 2021

ICT DATA MANAGEMENT

Six steps to prevent valuable data from

reaching the digital landfill

By Kevin Akaloo, National Head of Sales, Iron Mountain South Africa

ver the past year, COVID-19 and the need to facilitate remote operations has
forced businesses to fast-track their digital transformation initiatives. According to
OIron Mountain research, pandemic induced investments in digital solutions have
exploded, with 86% of data decision makers saying their deployment gave their organisation
a competitive edge. Despite this, business data management practices reveal that many
enterprises lack the ability to maximise the value of the vast quantities of data they generate.
Currently, 200 exabytes of data are generated worldwide every day. That’s 1,1 Gigabytes
per person per hour, while South Africans’ average traffic per capita per month has also
increased from 6,5GB in 2016 to 18,6 GB in 2021. Enterprises account for 42,2% of that
number, which is creating new challenges around data storage and management. Alongside Leverage AI and machine learning to
oceans of digital data, most organisations retain vast quantities of siloed physical data – on enhance your use of data
paper forms for example, and typically guarded under lock and key. These obstacles need Most organisations recognise the potential of
to be overcome as organisations that make best use of their data to inform mission-critical their data but struggle to unlock the power within
decisions, have the potential to gain a greater competitive advantage. either because they have too much unstructured
To help customers transform their business and improve commercial performance, and unclassified information, lack the internal
Iron Mountain has developed ‘How to understand the value of your data’, a step-by-step resources and skills to analyse it, or both.
guidebook on how enterprises should assess, process and store data in order to best extract Machine learning, a subset of AI, uses algorithms
new value, build operational resilience and deliver business impact. to scour information and identify patterns they
aren’t purposefully programmed to find. They
Below are six steps that when combined, can prevent valuable data work with data sets that are too large for humans
ending up in a digital landfill: and can create structure where none exists. The
software can scour data to apply proper retention
Take a proactive stance towards data management strategies, as well as unearth new revenue
With data volumes poised to mushroom and companies increasingly adopting multi- streams and cost saving opportunities.
cloud environments, it is vital they come to grips with data management — accounting
for privacy, compliance and security issues, while ensuring data is accessible to the Evade cyber threats
business. This includes understanding different types of data, and where and how to Establish best practices organisation-wide.
store and migrate them. Start by training employees to make the most of
the data tools at their disposal and teach them
Develop a robust data tiering system how to use them safely. Continue by mandating
To ‘tier’ data means classifying the information held by your organisation - based on its automatic software updates to ensure your staff
relative urgency, importance and lifecycle stage - and matching it with the most appropriate and their hardware are always as safe as they
storage solution: on premise, cloud or multi cloud. This exercise often yields a substantial can be. Finally (and perhaps most importantly)
‘grey area’ - records you probably won’t need but prefer not to lose. Such materials are often it is essential that organisations that choose
more cheaply and sustainably stored offline. to outsource this vital part of their operation,
delegate – rather than abdicate – that
Invest in data lifecycle automation suite responsibility to safely and sustainably streamline
Like any other manual process, manually archiving data is a labour-intensive process – their data storage and management.
particularly given how data grows exponentially over time. It is also prone to human error,
such as being moved to the wrong storage tier or prematurely purged. An upfront investment Managing data is vital for companies, but
in data lifecycle automation software can save a substantial amount of money in the future, it is also challenging for them to manage it
in the form of labour costs and, potentially, in the avoidance of fines for compliance violations. effectively internally, often leading them to
engage services providers. The right vendor will
Only pay for the storage space you actually need help shape a data management strategy that fits
The pricing structure used by many vendors can make data storage costs both inefficient across the entire data lifecycle, while ensuring
and unpredictable. Many data management services require payment for ‘planned’ or accessibility, security and cost effectiveness,
‘allocated’ capacity, which results in companies paying for storage space they don’t need. For as well as creating practical strategies for
maximum efficiencies, look for partners who can support you in streamlining this process, maximising the value trapped in inefficiently
and only charge you for the space you use, without additional fees to access or move data. managed data. n

EngineerIT | July 2021 | 9