Data is widely recognized as the lifeblood of the modern enterprise, but the exponential rate at which it is being generated means that it is crucial that organizations have the capability to manage it effectively to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
These requirements are instantly recognizable as the three principles of information security. Therefore, in the modern business context, data and security are inextricably linked.
Because business data is being generated, collected, and processed at such velocity, and because it typically results in large volumes of data stored in many different environments and systems in a wide variety of formats, organizations typically fail to monetize it fully and protect it properly to ensure security and privacy.
Business strategies, personalized marketing campaigns, investment decisions, product innovation and so much more depends on data. This means data is what powers the modern enterprise, but this is only possible if the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data is assured. Data security, therefore, is essential for every business, but as we all know, businesses can only use and protect the data they know about.
Knowing exactly what data exists, where it resides, its type and quality, and how it is used throughout the organization, is key, and it is this requirement that Data Catalogs and Metadata Management solutions are designed to support.
These solutions essentially include the ability to scan a wide variety of data sources, the ability to analyze and visualize the flow of data, and integrated data governance and privacy capabilities, as well as provide data catalogs and metadata management capabilities, of course.
Getting a handle on business data is important for two reasons. First, to ensure better utilization of data so that that the full potential of all available data is realized, and second, to ensure better protection and governance of data so that the risk of malicious use of data, data leakage, and non-compliance with data-related regulations is reduced.
Given the importance of data security and the growing emphasis on the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), modern businesses need to pay attention to the evolution of Metadata Management towards a core discipline within data management, data governance, and analytics to provide a unified perspective across all data sources, with Data Catalogs as a central element to provide a repository of data and insights into the value of that data.
Implementing feature-rich and comprehensive approaches for Metadata Management and the underlying Data Catalogs is a must for modern organizations, enabling both a better utilization of data and a higher level of data security and data governance.
— Martin Kuppinger, Principal Analyst, KuppingerCole.
Because we understand the importance of data management and security, and because we are committed to helping your business succeed, KuppingerCole has a great deal of content available in a variety of formats.
Research
Gathering and managing data across all the data sources in an organization, enabling data governance, and supporting data security initiative are all important and challenging tasks. To find out how to do this more efficiently, have a look at the newly-published Leadership Compass on Data Catalogs and Metadata Management, which is aimed at helping organizations choose the solution that best meets their needs.
For guidance and recommendations on finding the products for sensitive data protection and governance most appropriate for your organization, have a look at Leadership Compass on Database and Big Data Security and its companion Buyer’s Compass on Database and Big Data Security.
To find out more about enterprise databases offered mainly as managed services to enable modern cloud-native application architectures as well as data processing and analytics at scale, have a look at the Leadership Compass on Enterprise Databases in the Cloud.
Ensuring that the risks emerging from the abundance and use of Big Data are identified and that the right security and governance controls are implemented to address these risks, is challenging. To find out more about this challenge and the best ways to address it, have a look at this Leadership Brief on Data Security and Governance (DSG) for Big Data and BI Environments.
Advisories
Good information stewardship helps to ensure Big Data is used in ways that are ethical, compliant, and secure. Find out why and how to go about implementing it by reading this Advisory Note on Big Data Security, Governance, Stewardship.
Database Governance is required to enforce Information Security for structured data held in databases. To find out more about the topic, how it relates to GRC, elements required to make it work, and an overview of supporting technologies, have a look at this Advisory Note on Database Governance.
A key element of digital transformation has been the move to cloud-based infrastructure and services. For a review of the major related security risks, the shared security responsibility model, and the key controls an organization can implement to manage this risk, look at this Advisory Note on Cloud Services and Security.
Audio/video
If you would prefer to hear what our analysts have to say on business data protection and related topics, listen to these Analyst Chats on Data Management and Data Lineage - The Foundation for Big Data Governance and Security and on Enterprise Databases in the Cloud.
You can also have a look at this partner presentation from a past event that looks at How Big Data Technology can help Increase Cyber Attack Resilience through analyzing large sets of log and transactional data.
Blogs
Data Security has also been touched upon in several blog posts by our analysts. Have a look at the list below and choose the topics that you find most interesting or useful:
- Data Security and Governance (DSG) for Big Data and BI
- Big Data and Information Security Study
- Smart Data: The better Big Data – using Open API Economy concepts to better deal with your data
- Avoiding Data Breaches and Managing Big Data
Webinars
With the growing adoption of cloud computing, Big Data or open APIs, managing, securing and sharing massive amounts of digital data across heterogeneous and increasingly interconnected infrastructures is becoming increasingly difficult. One way of tackling this is through data-centric security. To find out more about this approach, look at this webinar on Data Security: Protecting Information at the Source.
Big Data technologies need to be managed and secured in the same way as the other components in the IT infrastructure. To find out more about the challenges, potential solutions, and benefits of getting this right, have look at this webinar entitled: Big Data – Bigger Risks?
And finally, for a discussion on the importance of securing data in the cloud, have a look at this webinar on: Data Security in the Cloud.
Tech Investment
Organizations investing in technologies to support big data security initiatives, can have a look at some of the related technology solutions that we have evaluated: