The emergence of cloud-based data management systems has seen information and data continuously criss-crossing different domains. With constantly shifting patterns in information, communication, and technology cloud-based data management systems are becoming increasingly important. Enterprises of all sizes are now moving their data, operations, and applications to the cloud and paving a way for modernization of data governance.
Below we look at five steps for minimizing risk with modern data governance.
1. Modernizing data governance strategies, techniques, and policies
The first step in minimizing data and business risks is modernizing all your governance techniques. That means that the foundation of data governance is creating modern systems that prevent applications and people from releasing sensitive information to unauthorized parties. Organizations can reinforce their data governance efforts by building modern systems and policies that protect financial information, personally identifiable information, and other proprietary information.
2. Empower data personnel with autonomous capabilities
Another way to embrace modern data governance, especially at a time of cloud-based storage is to empower your entire team responsible for handling data sets. Data stewardship is needed for effective data governance. Data stewards play an instrumental role in modern-day organizations: managing mega data, overseeing data quality, and guiding users towards the best data. It's the responsibility of all organizations to empower data stewards with the necessary autonomous governance capabilities. Autonomous governance allows data stewards to manage the end-to-end process of data, driving efficiency and scalability in organizations.
3. Modernizing data catalogs
The enterprise data catalog plays an instrumental role in reducing risks through automated data capabilities. These catalogs are key to the overall data governance, minimizing risks and making it easier to encourage collaboration and reuse. Data stewards can use data catalogs to carefully guide data users to the correct and governed data. A modern enterprise data catalog helps with data governance in the following ways:
• Knowing the exact data that you have and its location
• Managing governance audits and advising data users on risks
• Tracking data lineage
4. Aiming for continuous governance
To optimize modern data governance, organizations must aim for continuous governance. Continuous governance can be achieved through tight integrations of workflow processes and curations. Organizations and enterprises are engaging with customers in different channels, creating new data sources. Data governance must constantly evolve and adapt to these new shifts in data usage, especially among different partners. Organizations can use governance committees to revise policies and rules for adaptability. For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act and the General Data Protection Regulation provides accurate guidelines for safeguarding protected information. Data governance must evolve to capture new regulations on the cybersecurity front. Aiming for continuous governance is a classic approach to minimizing cybersecurity risks.
5. Centralize governance policies
The goal of centralizing governance policies is to eliminate silos or closed ecosystems and ensure compliance with established laws. There's no doubt that today's distributed data environments present glaring governance and compliance challenges. Distributed networks, diverse channels, and billions of user accounts continue to pose a juggernaut to efficient data governance. System interoperability and the rising need to improve data integration pose exposure risks. Governance costs are also incurred in managing complex, integrated networks, and data. Thus, centralizing governance policies is a proactive compliance measure. This measure can minimize risk, ensuring efficient workflow processes, scalability, and efficiency.
Cloud computing represents a breakthrough technology. That's because it helps interconnected systems, IoT, and applications to enjoy centralized, remote storage. Organizations are shifting data management, bringing massive cloud migration from on-premise systems to the cloud, symbolizing the new wake. The explosion of public cloud infrastructures like AWS and Google Cloud Platform indicates the direction of modern data governance. There is no putting this on hold anymore we are living in the time of computer systems being rapidly modernized so these simple steps should set you on the right path for modernizing your data governance and minimizing the risks.
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Alex Kachar is a Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience in developing and delivering Business Intelligence and Analytics solutions, executing Data Governance programs and managing high-performance development teams.
As the Chief Technology Officer, Alex is responsible for the design and architecture of secure, reliable and scalable business solutions. Alex’s wide range of consulting experience brings a unique perspective on analytics, accurate and reliable decision-making and innovation across industries.