Summary

The Importance and Rising Profile of Data Governance

Data governance can be a challenge, depending on the sector an organization is in, the amount of consumer data it collects and processes, whether the data it stores or processes is tied to national security or how much intellectual property it owns. While it may seem complicated for many, Toolbox spoke to Data Security as a Service provider ALTR to gauge what it takes to govern data optimally.

Dean Cruse, the VP of Marketing at ALTR, says that data governance is certainly a priority for organizations, considering the recent cyber attacks that exposed a large number of organizations to data exfiltration and encryption via ransomware. “The data governance and protection market is rapidly growing and is garnering a lot of interest. In fact, we’re seeing a lot of investment in the space, and we expect to continue to see more.

“As data increasingly becomes more and more important to businesses, data governance and protection will likewise increase in value to businesses as the best way to secure and manage their assets. At the same time, recent cyberattacks and data breaches have underscored the critical role governance and protection play within organizations. Per MarketsAndMarkets, this sector may have a $5.1 billion value by 2025, making the next 12 months a critical window for investment into the technologies driving that transformation,” he says.

James Beecham, the company’s CTO, says that while some vendors are trying to narrow the definition of “data governance” to simply mean data discovery and classification, which are certainly critical first steps in the data governance process, it’s not enough to simply know where your data is.

“If you can’t control who’s accessing that data and prevent threats to it, you’ll never be in compliance with GDPR and CCPA, because the fines for loss are staggering, regardless of company size,” he says.

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