When it comes to your organisation’s data, governance and compliance do not have to be at odds with the demands of your data.
Over the years, computing innovations have coined various terms which try to capture the essence of the technology. Phrases such as the ‘cloud’ are an example as it attempts to portray where data is stored yet it often confuses people, and even disappoints them when they realise that their data is just being saved to a functional data centre somewhere in the suburbs.
However, the phrase ‘data lake’ is a fitting metaphor for how big data can be stored. Simply put, it’s a vast pool of raw data which may or may not be structured. Certainly, data sloshing around in this vast pool is easier to imagine than it floating gently in a cloud.
And to continue with this metaphor, there’s something lurking dangerously in the water – the twin threats of data governance and compliance. It’s commonplace to think that governance and compliance are at odds with data, that one gets in the way of the other, that data stakeholders could interact with data and get more done with it, if only such waters were rid of governance and compliance.
The burden of big data
Undoubtedly, dealing with data can be burdensome and lead to data issues, but it all depends on how your end-users actually interact with the data, and how such interaction is recorded by a data governance specialist.
The traditional system and manual enforcement meant the end user had to record their interaction with the data via governance tools and catalogues. The issue with this approach is one of human error; people can easily forget to update their actions or incorrectly code the solution on the system.
While double-checking for human error may have been an acceptable process when your data lake was more like a pond, the amount of data which is being collected, stored and subsequently analysed is vast. Also, data is no longer just data; it’s legally protected, has rights, and your organisation has to safeguard it or else face severe consequences.
The ease of data automation
Without doubt, some tasks are better automated. From a governance standpoint, it ensures that key actions are recorded correctly thus eliminating gaps in the recorded data. Furthermore, it will record lineage and tagging data when required.
As for compliance, it offers end users a ruleset that enforces behaviour around regulations such as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
BDM Solution – Operationalising Data Governance
Another key element from an automation perspective, is that a lot more can be achieved. With the most comprehensive data and governance operations solution, BDM Control allows users to record all data activities along with data taxonomy and relationships.
The data can be easily audited while sensitive data can be masked, anonymized or tokenized on ingest, as required. And data management policies can be programmed an enforced, all which is carried out in an easy-to-use GUI without the need to write code or program any business logic.
Ultimately, this will remove the risk of data breaches, subsequent fines and reputational damage to your organisation, while ensuring data is used consistently and is easily audited.
In other words, data lake placid.
For more information, please contact us to find out how Bluemetrix can help your organisation automate data and governance operations.
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