Unstructured data – that is, all digital information that resides outside of databases – is growing significantly in volume. With this growth, organizations across a variety of industries are realizing the risks that loss or misuse of these valuable assets poses. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute reveals that 84 percent of organizations admit their unstructured data is accessible by people with no business need for that access. Additionally, 91 percent of organizations do not have a process for determining who owns unstructured data.
In light of this information, companies are finally beginning to acknowledge the importance of a protective framework for unstructured data. In fact, when exploring respondent willingness to buy software to address the problem, the Ponemon Institute reports the potential market for data protection is $3.16 billion. Data governance is a combination of processes and technologies by which companies administer data preservation, protection and use. The overarching goal of a comprehensive system of governance is ensuring proper data use – an enterprise priority that is rapidly becoming an urgent need.
One company that is putting in place a comprehensive data governance framework is Royal DSM N.V. (DSM), a global Life and Material Sciences company based in the Netherlands. DSM strives to create innovative products and services that contribute to the quality of human life. End user markets of DSM include human and animal nutrition and health, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, coatings and paint, electrics and electronics, life protection and housing.
DSM currently employs 23,000 people who generate information in over 200 sites across 49 countries. Given the scale and footprint of this truly multi-national enterprise, ensuring that only the right people are accessing precisely the data they need for their jobs and projects, and doing so in a consistent and timely fashion is extremely resource intensive if not nearly impossible to achieve with high accuracy. DSM’s IT operations department cares for vast amounts of unstructured data which, when compared to that of other types of organizations is by percentage extremely business valuable in its content. Considering how much intellectual property makes its way to file shares, it stands to reason that DSM considers the automation of the processes that govern data use and authorizations as well as revocations crucial. After lengthy and careful evaluation of possible solutions, DSM selected Varonis for company wide unstructured data protection and control.
Varonis provided DSM with its flagship product DatAdvantage – a solution for monitoring data use and removing excess access – and the web-based companion DataPrivilege – which lets data business owners manage entitlements. The selection of DatAdvantage and DataPrivilege was driven by a need to ensure that company data is being governed by the principle of least privilege, meaning that when it comes to the intellectual property of the company, only the right people should have access to valuable information and even then only for the time period that such access is required. With Varonis’ solutions, DSM looks forward to installing and enforcing an unstructured data protection regimen that not only removes excess access but also identifies data business owners for the longer term goal of transitioning entitlement management away from IT and placing it with those persons who have context as to the business value of the data.
With DatAdvantage, DSM will identify the names of the business owners for file share data and train those individuals in the use of the Varonis DataPrivilege application to easily manage requests and authorizations for access to that data. In fact, once the transition is complete all DSM employees can use the DataPrivilege application to make requests for data on file servers. Varonis DataPrivilege via its automated workflow capabilities will inform data business owners of the pending data access requests and provide the means to distribute and enforce the desired access policy (example: grant read-only access for 30 days).
DSM’s installation of the Varonis suite for data governance represents foresight in dealing with unstructured data protection and control. By having in place a comprehensive framework for unstructured data management, DSM will be able to keep up with the volumes of this information as they grow and change. The transition of entitlement management to business owners will not only assure scalability of the control for the long term but also increase the accuracy of those controls by placing the power with those persons in the company who know the data best. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, DSM stands to save thousands in resources that are currently applied to manually audit data use and manage its accessibility.
Johnnie Konstantas is vice president of marketing for Varonis.
