Why Is Your Business Data Treated With Such Little Regard?

Most businesses are aware that data is a very valuable asset to extract important information and provide a competitive edge.  Those who use their data properly will continue to be successful.  But then, why do so many suffer from data leaks? When's the last time you heard a business lost or misplaced their buildings, their company vehicles, or their employees?  Never!  Therefore, if data is so important it should be treated as such.

The truth is, many companies do not treat their data as an asset.  It's generally treated very poorly and now there is an increase in regulations ordering companies to take better care of their data. Looking on the positive side, these regulations have the potential to offer excellent benefits by forcing changes in the way data is seen by businesses, corporations, and organizations.  If you start treating your data as an asset, you might just discover you are creating a competitive edge!

Time To Clean House:

In most cases, businesses have way too much data and it's getting out of control.  They are wasting valuable time storing, protecting, and securing data but at a cost and that's the biggest problem.  With the increase in regulations, you are going to have to start cleaning house.  Data is not an asset if you just keep collecting it and never clean house or perform a significant maintenance on your assets.  If you never take a look at your data, you are never going to realize whether there is value or not.  You have to ask yourself what you have for data and why you need it.

It's Time To Take Control:

First off, you need to know the what, who, and why of your data.  Once you understand, you will start taking control.

You must decide what your business should have and what you should keep.  You also need to know where your data is stored, is it in a data center, on laptops, on mobile devices, or with a cloud provider?

Lastly, the Who and Why!  Are there any other business assets that you have no idea who's using it or why they are using it?  Probably not, but companies notoriously do not know the who's or whys when it comes to their data!  You need to take a much closer look at your company and fully understand who is accessing your data and why!

Once you start treating your data with respect as an asset, understanding how your data is being treated, there won't be room for little to no regard.

Create The Right Environment For Your Data:

Your company provides a good working environment for your employees, you provide for their parking, have regular maintenance performed on your company cars, etc.  Your data, just like all your assets, needs the right environment in order to thrive and grow.

Think about your data strategy, do you focus on the storage, media type, or the vendor?  Possibly you are concentrating on a strategy that is totally focused on your data itself vs the technology.  First off, never silo your data, it must be placed in the correct repository when needed and can easily move between repositories, whether they are in the cloud or another place.  Ask yourself if it can be recovered quickly?  Work on creating a strategy that is just about your data.

Put Your Data To Work:

If you have applied the above suggestions we've gone over, cleaning up your storage, creating the right strategy for your data, and have placed it in a good environment, you can now take advantage of tools that will give you value from it.

You should now be able to apply data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data techniques to your assets.  You should be able to understand your data much more clearly and discover things from your data that you never knew before.  You are about to enter a really exciting time that data will give you.

Your Business Mindset:

It's time to encourage a mindset in your business that focuses on your asset – data!  Realize the importance of offering a high level of security and privacy, and understand how extremely important data is to your company's success.

Once you redefine the mindset within your company, your data will be treated as the excellent asset it really is.  You and your company will be in the perfect position to reap the rewards that taking care of your data will bring.