Gartner analysts have reported that—through 2025—80 percent of organizations “seeking to scale digital business will fail because they do not take a modern approach to data governance.” The digitalization of business has turned the traditional method of data governance on its head. There is no longer an adequate one-size-fits-all approach, which Gartner characterizes as a “traditional command-and-control-based IT governance” method. Modern business officially requires a more flexible approach to data governance known as adaptive data governance.
What Is Adaptive Data Governance?
This approach gives organizations the ability to apply different data governance strategies to different business operations. Decision-makers are able to select from a few governance styles to apply the right method to a given business scenario. Adaptive governance has a few qualities such as context sensitivity that are in direct contrast to the more traditional method where decisions and policies are “partially understood and disconnected from local decision making,” according to Gartner.
Why Embrace Adaptive Data Governance?
The short answer is that your data governance won’t be able to scale with your business needs for the future if you do not adopt a more flexible approach. As your business onboards technologies such as cloud, advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, you will see an increasing influx of data. Being able to apply the right data governance style to your evolving data sets will enable you fully take advantage of all this new information and secure it. As Microsoft says, “Different data types require different controls to ensure that systems handle, store, and use the data correctly.”
Additionally, your business structure will likely keep evolving in complexity—introducing new risks on a daily basis that can compromise your data. With a dispersed workforce and growing numbers of devices on your business network, you need a way to continually monitor who is accessing your data and what they’re using it for. Only with this insight will you maintain compliance with industry regulations.
It’s important to strike a balance between setting these least-access permissions to data while embracing data democratization.
How Data Democratization Fits in to Your Modern Data Governance Approach
Data democratization is the concept of making data accessible to all members of your business at all levels. It is the opposite of siloed information—data that exists confined to individuals, departments, or computers. Democratizing your data is the way to truly run a data-driven business and make innovation a central point of your data governance strategy. But data democratization does not mean foregoing security protocols and least privilege access permissions.
The right data governance strategy will democratize your data in a secure way. Employees will have access to the data they need without having to waste time searching for it or prying it from the IT department, but they won’t have access to data they don’t need. That premise is important for ensuring both data democratization and strict adherence to your security standards.
Experts like Microsoft have devised data strategies that both break down data siloes in an organization while ensuring that data is securely governed and managed to fulfill compliance requirements. With automation technologies and scalable controls for data architecture, Microsoft’s approach supports the modern need for flexibility and aims at “powering-on intelligent experiences.”
Ready to Modernize Your Data Governance?
It’s likely your organization already has some form of data governance or data management in place, so you don’t need to start from scratch when adopting an adaptive approach to suit your modern environment. But you will be more likely to onboard the right tools and methods if you choose to work with an expert partner. Point Alliance can answer your data governance and security questions—and work alongside you to ensure your success. Get in touch today to learn more
