Organizations are generating and using data more than they ever had. The value of data is undisputed and the comparison of data is being done with oil and gold. The ecosystem that organizations operate in is also changing both externally as access to technology has been democratized by cloud providers and internally as organizations try to become lean and optimize operations.
Data governance is a discipline of data management which deals with understanding the data assets, securing the data and managing the data. The field has been around as long as people have been using data, however the need of the data governance has become far more important in this digital era.
Following are the key factors which leads to need of data governance for enterprises.
Technology Democratization
The cloud providers have made it easier for the organizations to consume technology, experiment with options, try scale with Zero upfront investment. The competition and the size of the market also help ensure that there is continuous innovation and disruptive technologies are being commoditized
Changing Business Models
Changing business models, new industry verticals, digitalization of processes have also caused lot of changes in the way organizations operate . Companies now want to run lean, be more agile and adapt to the changing landscape.
Security and Privacy
Security refer to prevention from the attacks and keeping the bad actors away. We have seen a major cyber attack unfolding almost every month.
Privacy refers to the way organizations use the data of partners and customers. There are multiple laws being created around the globe on data security and privacy and GDPR being one of the pivotal ones in the equation. Security and privacy go hand in had but need a robust Data Governance strategy for it to be successful.
Social Factors
Like people and their growing affinity to create and maintain social score on apps such as Instagram and Facebook, organizations also have been looked upon by their social impact. This includes social awareness, social listening, social responsibility. Street has seen stocks of companies crash with social misbehavior. Cyber attacks does not only cause data breaches but also impacts social score for the companies. And thus this becomes another prominent reason to embrace for Data Governance
Digital Assets
With the advent of technology we are seeing digital assets making their way into daily working of organizations. Companies have created or modified so many new devices as part of their business models. Coffee machine and Microwaves have gone online and on and average we can see 6-8 things connected to the internet in every room. With that level of connectivity it is far more important to govern things now than it was in the past..
These are my thoughts on why we need Data governance. In the following blogs I am going to talk about the how to implement the Governance Framework.
