Do You Manage Your Data? Or Does Your Data Manage You?

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Data is becoming increasingly crucial for business. Companies use it for everything, from product development to marketing. It is the lifeblood of many sophisticated organizations, looking to succeed in a challenging and competitive marketplace. 

 

The amount of data that businesses currently generate is enormous. According to a report from Symantec, they now store more than 2.2 zettabytes of the stuff – a massive quantity if you know what the prefix “zetta” actually means. 

 

The problem, though, is that data is out of control in many organizations. They’re collecting alright – but they have practically no idea how to manage the stuff. Sometimes it feels as if the data is managing them!

 

In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of the ways that you can better manage your data, including using a data management CRO. Let’s take a look. 

 

Be Efficient

 

Tech enthusiasts like to talk about data as if it is a giant tsunami of value, swamping every business in the world, but that’s not necessarily true. Data is helpful sometimes, but a lot of it has no value whatsoever to enterprises. 

 

It is vital, therefore, that you remain efficient, only storing the data that you actually need – or could use in the future with better insight tools. You don’t want to store vast troves of data for no reason. It is just expensive, takes up valuable computing resources, and is difficult to process.

 

Be Consistent In Your Data Policies

 

Companies also face the problem of being consistent. It is vital that organizations adopt rational data policies that allow every member of the organization to contribute. Having the same system no matter where the data resides, whether in the cloud or locally, means that everyone is on the same page. Plus, it makes it easier to standardize data across storage clients. 

 

Be More Understanding

 

As discussed, not all data is equal. But this diversity in the quality of data relates to both quality and sensitivity. For instance, personal customer data is more of a security risk than data coming from a temperature sensor on one of your refrigerated trucks. Both are important, but hackers could exploit one, but not the other. 

 

Organizations, therefore, need to be more like government institutions, classifying data according to its relative value. High-value data should be protected at all costs to prevent a costly breach. Low-value data can be collected and stored with less stringent protocols. 

 

Keep Your Focus On The Data

 

A lot of companies like to focus on the devices or data centres that store their data. But the most successful businesses concentrate on the data itself. The method of storing it is secondary. 

 

Building an information infrastructure gives your enterprise the ability to access and consume essential information regardless of device or location. You may need to use specialist applications, cloud computing, virtualization, or a combination of these technologies. 

 

Managing data can be tough, but with a robust approach, you can avoid many of the problems that other companies face.