I
n recent months I have increasingly been asked to assist
cloud customers with thinking around how they manage
their data and classify same within a broader legal framework of legislation [such as PoPI].
The issue of data classification rightly falls into a wider
set of considerations regarding how businesses should
be managing their data and the all up governance of such
data.
It is therefore appropriate to address the three tiers around
issues in this space, namely:
(1) Governance of Data,
(2) Data Governance/Management and
(3) Classification of Data (the latter two matters being a
subset of consideration of the former).
Since the subject matter is fairly broad I have decided to
address each separately in a series of articles, focusing on
the specific topic matter.
This article will address the first tier responsibility that
organizations need to put in place around the governance
of data.
A. The Governance of Data - Where We Find Ourselves
It is not uncommon to hear talk of and the related value and
benefits of the “Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Analytics,
Machine Learning”.
To quote Marc Benioff:
“The world is being re-shaped by the convergence of
social, mobile, cloud, big data, community and other
powerful forces. The combination of these technologies
unlocks an incredible opportunity to connect everything
together in a new way and is dramatically transforming
the way we live and work.”
Nowhere is this transformation more apparent than in cloudbased services. By their nature cloud services offer a rich
and near endless source of data for us to manage and if
correctly managed, from which we can extract value.
While one sees cloud service providers securing their
environment to offer a more reliable and trusted service,
users of cloud services may find daily management of data
and relate extraction of value and benefits, an increasingly
complex aspect of their businesses.
17 | www.firstdistribution.co.za