Press Releases
Varonis Insights
Ponemon Study
"Survey on the Governance of Unstructured Data," which highlights the need for organizations to control access to unstructured corporate data.
> Read More
Analyst Briefing: Data Governance Done Right
Data governance solutions provide real value to an organization beyond litigation readiness and deliver real CAPEX and OPEX savings. In the "do more with less" era, IT can hardly afford to spend the time trying to manually organize or remediate data access and retention.
> Read More
Ponemon Study - Survey on the Governance of Unstructured Data
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Protection of an organization’s unstructured data is poised to become a primary business objective in the very short term because the typical business or government organization keeps important data in shared folders on file servers and NAS devices. When we consider this trend in conjunction with the rate at which unstructured data is being produced (i.e. audio/video files, images and scans, blueprints, software code, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, emails etc), we begin to understand the dynamics that have given rise to an important new market for unstructured data governance technology and services.
Ensuring that employees, temporary employees and third-parties have appropriate access to unstructured data is not only critical to an organization’s ability to be efficient and competitive, but also to be in compliance with data protection regulations.
While few organizations have automated solutions in place today to address unstructured data governance, the underlying demand for such solutions is strong. We estimate that in 2008 there is a latent demand of US$3.15 billion dollars among businesses in the United States for technology and software to protect unstructured data.
The demand for solutions to help organizations deal with unstructured data protection is consistent with survey responses. Most organization report that they believe their unstructured data is at risk today, and they see the importance of controlling access increasing over time. Today, organizations acknowledge that many employees and contractors have overly permissive access to data, and that it is questionable exactly who has accountability for authorizing access. Similarly, fundamental operational processes for managing unstructured data – e.g., determining who can access data, auditing who is accessing data, and identifying data business owners – are widely lacking as well.
Our research shows that organizations have money earmarked for unstructured data protection. Given that few organizations report having automated solutions in place, much of this money is likely spent on manual processes or outsourcing to third-parties today. These existing approaches are clearly ineffective, and organizations should seriously consider evaluating automated solutions. Those offering automated solutions should take note of the significant demand – US$3.15 billion – for solutions and recognize that organizations may need some education and help in transitioning from their current manual processes to more efficient and effective automated solutions.