Are we just doing the "Information" time warp?

For those that have seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", you'll know what I mean when I say "time warp". Predicting trends, however, in information management is hardly just a "jump to the left" or "a step to the right". Where will we be in 2010 with information governance, eDiscovery, Compliance and archiving? For some, worrying about the right strategy isn't something to think about since the world is going to end in December 2012 (according to the Mayan Calendar and of course Hollywood). Right?

Well, despite my personal interest in all things controversially ancient, be assured my mind is very firmly planted in dealing with the present and information alignment is again at the forefront of our minds. Predicting what will happen in the way we access information is a bit like finding the elixir to life: we sense that it might exist, we follow our instincts to move us in the right direction, but we're not sure where the journey will take us.

Consider this question on information access: Will people in 2010 switch from being reactive to proactive in ESI data discovery to deliver a better and more "ready" approach to structured and unstructured information management? I think so. After attending the 8th Annual eDiscovery event in NYC at the beginning of December and the eDiscovey pharma event in Philadelphia in September, it is clear to me that inside counsel in many organizations are faced with litigation costs that are spiraling out of control due to repetitive information discovery tasks. Consequently they are totally turned on to making electronic discovery more efficient and reducing the consequential litigation cost of outside counsel. Their question is more about how to do it, not whether they should. Consequently, I predict that 2010 WILL be a defining year for US organizations seeking proactive information management solutions. For the rest of the world now coming to terms with the underworld effects of discovery, 2010 will be the year of enlightenment.

Let's also consider information lifecycle management (ILM), which is rapidly being enveloped by the topic of Information Governance. For many, this is more of a restatement of intentions around ILM and compliance made 5-7 years ago but there is a difference. Information governance is about a broader strategy focused on minimizing risk through improved access, retention and organization of information.

Will ILM therefore finally come of age? I think so, but I believe 2010 will be the year of practicality when it comes to governing information for compliance and risk. For too long now companies have spent undisclosed millions of dollars on strategies that lead to direction but not to policy and execution. In 2010, organizations will focus on the small steps that make a difference:

1. Improved organization and classification
2. Better access across the enterprise
3. Intuitive mining and understanding on the nature of information, e.g. for data privacy and PCI.

Let's also not forget the lifecycle retention, disposition and proactive deduplication of information assets that are critical to cost management. These small steps are projects that combine stakeholders from IT and business to make measurable differences and lead directly to mapping and policy for broader information strategy.

How will this be possible? Simple – "evolution". Information Lifecycle, Access and Retention solutions like CommVault Simpana software already have evolved to become more flexible particularly when targeting legacy information assets. Others undoubtedly will follow. 2010 therefore will be about making decisions on retention, classification, taxonomy, categorization, records declaration and workflow safe in the knowledge that you CAN change direction if you need to. 2010 will be the year that information lock-in ends; where organizations say no to the continued siloed, constrained and restricted access management of valuable business information.

In Search of the Holy Grail to Information Governance

I'd like to propose a question given the latest 2009 eDiscovery market & vendor positioning from a leading industry analyst. Are Compliance and eDiscovery separate IT challenges or are they inextricably connected?

Current analyst thinking looks at both the eDiscovery and Compliance markets as being fulfilled by forms of archiving solutions. The rationale for this is simple: to discover electronic evidence and preserve its integrity, the preference of traditional solutions is to move or take a copy of data and store it in an "archive" silo. This is perfect until you need to discover data from diverse structured and unstructured data sources and then the amount of copied data that has to be consumed to fit this strategy is colossal. There is also the potential for significant legal costs for the processing of this data.

To make sense of this, analysts have conveniently segmented the eDiscovery market into lower end and upper end solutions depending on eDiscovery capability and onsite or hosted (cloud) focus. Specifically, lower end solutions are about identification, collection and preservation while upper end solutions are focused on processing, review, analysis and production.

The compliance market on the other hand, is about retention and supervision. If we use archiving solutions for compliance, we end up storing data in yet another silo so it can be indexed, searched and sampled. Are these really separate use cases that ultimately drive the need for separate silos of data or is it more of a business-driven perspective? The answer to this really depends on how businesses view information risk and more importantly how data is accessed across the enterprise.

Structured, Unstructured, Semi-structured data archiving - who cares?

Well, we do.

By "we", I mean CommVault & Informatica. Today, we unveiled a partnership that redefines what's truly possible with information lifecycle management. To put this into context (and in case you have not heard), database archiving is one of the fastest growing requirements in the data management world. This is fueled by the pressure of managing transaction data growth, application scalability and now the legal discovery of database information.

The trouble is that very few solutions have been able to properly address this. You could probably count on one hand all the structured (database) archiving solutions that have come and gone over the last few years largely because they don't archive, but rather sub-divide. Doesn't subdivision create even more complexity, duplication, and cost though? I'll let you decide.

On the other hand, Informatica has something different through a newly acquired solution from Applimation. They call it "Data Archive" for databases and associated enterprise resource management (ERM) applications that archives and moves data from databases. What's was missing, however, was a long-term archiving repository that complements its ILM solution set and a search and workflow discovery capability that addresses the need for business information access. Of course all this needs to be done at the most optimal cost given the current economic climate. Well, the waiting is over.

Don't get caught in the data rip tide when litigation comes

Well, it is great to join my colleagues David West and Dipesh Patel in the ranks of CommVault bloggers. I've been ruminating over this inaugural post for the past two months while I've been presenting at our nationwide Innovate8 information and data management road show. I've engaged in so many great conversations with customers and prospects about information governance, risk, compliance and eDiscovery, and am excited to use this blog as a way to share the top-of-mind issues with you here.

A bit of background on me. I'm an English guy living in the New Jersey area, on the doorstep of the city with the biggest financial meltdown in recent history. I get asked a lot why I moved to the US. The answer is I was promised great weather, good food and less tax. Whilst the weather is, of course, a nice contrast to the rain in the UK, the size of food portions is overwhelming, and tax – well who knows what's going to happen there. What's ended up being even more cool about living over the river from the Big Apple is that you can see firsthand how the climate around data retention and business information access has changed.

The aim of my blog is to address and comment on the real world information challenges of organizations today bridging the gap between IT and legal teams. I've got lawyers, IT professionals, compliance experts and some technical propeller heads all at hand to comment on these issues. You remember that old game called "Simon says"? Well I'm not saying you're going to agree with everything we say but let's get the debate going.

The content of this blog reflects the thoughts and opinions of the author, and does not represent the thoughts, opinions, plans or strategies of CommVault Systems, Inc. ("CommVault") and CommVault undertakes no obligation to update, correct or modify any statements made by the author of this blog. Any and all third party links provided by this blog are not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, CommVault.