As you embark on the important goal of governing your data, it can be overwhelming to figure out the right first steps. There are many options when creating a data governance strategy and many resources available that will give you different elements to consider. At Point Alliance, we recommend following Microsoft’s advice and strategy as they are a seasoned expert in establishing effective data governance as part of holistic security.
Microsoft’s modern data governance strategy centers around five goals:
- Building a single Enterprise Data Lake (EDL) to reduce data duplication
- Breaking down siloed data to connect your data for greater usefulness
- Operating with responsible data democratization
- Driving efficiency as you gather, manage, access and use data
- Abiding by compliance requirements
Below are some best practices to consider as you devise your data governance strategy and aim for these goals.
Take Stock of Your Data
Classifying and prioritizing your existing data is a smart place to start because it will set a strong foundation for the rest of your strategy. You have to know what you’re working with before you try to govern it. Once you have a clear picture of your data, you will be able to see if you already have some level of data management operating in your organization—giving you a good basis to develop the rest of your strategy.
Figure Out Who’s Doing What
As we mentioned in our last blog defining data governance, a solid data governance approach consists of two groups of people: one that creates internal policies for governing data and another that puts those policies into practice. While these two groups can be a mixture of executives and IT personnel, they should consistently communicate with one another and not operate in siloes. IT personnel should be involved in the stakeholder decisions about policies, for example.
Establish Metrics
Your strategy must include a way to measure the success of your data governance. Consider your end goals when establishing your metrics. Should your organization be able to meet compliance requirements with greater ease and efficiency? Do you want to get better use out of your data for more accurate analytics? Ask your organization what it wants to achieve out of data governance and set metrics accordingly.
Invest in the Right Tools
Effective data governance takes time and an investment in technologies that fit your strategy. You’ll also want to consider using an expert partner to advise on how to best use your tools and ensure proper adoption in your organization. This partner should also help you evaluate which solutions will fulfill your data governance goals and not try to fit your strategy into a specific technology like a square peg in a round hole.
For example, in Microsoft 365, you implement data loss prevention by defining and applying DLP policies. With a DLP policy, you can identify, monitor, and automatically protect sensitive items across:
- Microsoft 365 services such as Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive
- Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Windows 10, Windows 11 and macOS (Catalina 10.15 and higher) endpoints
- Non-Microsoft cloud apps
- On-premises file shares and on-premises SharePoint.
Prioritize Security
While this tip may go without saying, it’s important to consider how many facets are involved in securing data within your data governance strategy. You need to make sure data storage locations have the right security controls implemented, for example. And make sure you maintain the right identity governance. To do so, you’ll need to apply the principle of least privilege: users should have access to only the data they need to accomplish work, which helps you avoid excess access—thereby mitigating risk. You’ll want to take this least access approach for the entire lifecycle of employees’ tenures.
Start a Data Governance Strategy Today
Point Alliance can help you create and deploy a data governance strategy that fulfills your organization’s goals, whether that is to better use data for smarter decision-making or to exceed compliance requirements—or both. We listen to your needs and help you devise the right approach using the technologies that will serve your long-term growth. Get in touch today to learn more.
