Keeping An Eye On Your Data

As the volume and complexity of data continues to grow, organizations must put in place governance processes to protect their data and ensure its efficient and responsible use.

By Dr. Jonathan Reichental, Professor and Author

Every business today is a technology business, each generating vast amounts of data. This has created remarkable opportunities and challenges.

The datasphere, the term for all the data we’ve created so far, is around 100 zettabytes and it’s going to double in about three years. A zettabyte, a term unfamiliar to many, is a large number. It’s one followed by 21 zeros. To put this in perspective, you’d need one billion terabyte hard drives to store one zettabyte of data. This scale of data and the velocity in which it is being created is consequential for every organization.

Data is the most valuable asset

A consensus has formed in the business and data communities that data has now reached a point in which it is the most important asset in every organization. My own research validates this.

Quality data at scale can contain remarkable answers and insights. With the right skills and tools, organizations can leverage data to enable improved decision-making and optimized operations. They can use data to drive competitive advantage, unleash innovation, and solve a wide range of intractable problems for business and society.

But achieving these results with data doesn’t happen without deliberate effort. The power of data is only realized through skillful governance.

The importance of governance

Whether we call it data governance or not, every organization has some form of oversight for the data it handles. It could be as simple as knowing that data is being backed-up, or where certain data is located and who has access to it. Data governance, informal and formal, spans a wide continuum of approaches. However, it all comes down to this: is data being fully managed in the organization and is its value being realized?

So, what does this actually mean in practice?

Defining data governance

At a high level, we can define data governance as data that is managed well. In aspiring to achieve high performance in managing data, we must ask to what degree are there agreed policies and processes for handling, for example, sensitive, legal, and regulatory data requirements? Are there documented accountabilities, formal decision structures, and enforcement rules for data? The right talent, processes, and technologies must exist. These are some of the many core attributes of good governance.

Today, the governance and management of data has become an actual science. There’s a wide range of data science professions and supporting educational programs. Software for supporting these professions has exploded in recent years, including incredible solutions for analytics, visualization, and more. Increasingly, they are being powered by artificial intelligence.

Governance is a choice

In the absence of quality data governance, an organization will never fully realize the potential of data and in fact, may subject itself to increasing levels of risk over time. These risks include inadvertently using bad data, experiencing privacy challenges, and suffering from the consequences of weak cybersecurity.

The demand for high-quality data governance and its promise is quickly making it a core function of an increasing number of organizations. Data can create important value for every organization and to achieve this in an optimum fashion requires high-performing data governance. If it’s implemented well, it can be transformational.

This article first appeared in the June 2023 edition of QS Insights Magazine.

Dr. Jonathan Reichental is a multiple-award-winning technology and business leader whose career has spanned both the private and public sectors. He’s been a senior software engineering manager, a director of technology innovation, and has served as chief information officer at both O’Reilly Media and the City of Palo Alto, California. Reichental is currently the founder of advisory, investment, and education firm, Human Future, and also creates online education for LinkedIn Learning. He has written three books on the future of cities: Smart Cities for Dummies, Exploring Smart Cities Activity Book for Kids, and Exploring Cities Bedtime Rhymes. His latest books include Data Governance for Dummies and a Cryptocurrency QuickStart Guide.