Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/45522
disorder with respect to data; it is because they are adhering to their mandate and doing their jobs. When a user wants to find a file or email message after the company's data center was destroyed in a flood, IT can deliver it. This is the plus side of data hoarding, not to mention the reason why so many enterprises fall into this default practice. The downside of hoarding, however, is that IT is typically working in a vacuum when it comes to managing data. They are not working hand-in-hand with legal and records management to apply policy to the tera- or petabytes of data, and, as a result, they become hoarders and save everything. Any IT organization that thinks that saving everything is a sound company policy does not have an understanding of the liability they are creating. So why is it difficult to manage this data and apply policy? One reason is that IT utilizes proprietary software applications to protect and manage data. These applications were not designed to manage the data according to predefined policies. As time goes on, these applications change and evolve, making the content even more difficult to access. Therefore, a backup tape that is 10 years old is complex and expensive to deal with. VIEW A WEBINAR click here INFORMATION GOVERNANCE: THE IMPORTANCE OF POLICY Information governance has become critical to any corporate records management strategy. ON THIS TOPIC (co-sponsored by Dennis Kiker of the law firm LeClairRyan). Courts are more frequently requesting that electronically stored information be collected. Experts are being brought in to testify on ESI collection issues and the costs involved. Additionally, technology that simplifies the process of identifying and collecting ESI while simultaneously reducing the costs has come into play. The time is now for corporations to get their data house in order and become prepared for current and future litigation. Once policy is defined, the obvious place to start is with primary data (i.e., data on user desktops and networks). However, the legacy content (data on secondary networks like storage servers and backup tapes) may be more critical to address. Take, for example, a case where a new lawsuit is filed and it involves five users who are no longer with the company. The content of these users' email messages is being requested by the opposing counsel and will be used to support the case. The mailboxes could have been purged since no active regulations or litigation had existed against these users. However, since all legacy content was saved, the email data needs to be restored for the case and entered into evidence. Therefore, legacy tapes may actually be the first logical place to begin. TECHNOLOGY MAKES THE JOB EASY The key challenge in managing corporate data assets is dealing with the volume and the complexity of the data. Access to this data is challenging enough, but when the volume reaches hundreds of terabytes or even petabytes, it becomes overwhelming. www.iltanet.org Risky Business 55