Valuable data hidden by ROT?
In order to effectively realize the latent value of the information that exists within your organization it is clear that you, as the Chief Data Officer, require a strong understanding of the types of information that are being accumulated. Establishing this understanding demands the use of techniques such as data processing, data analytics and data mining, all of which are dependent on an ability to query the organization’s unstructured data footprint.
Inefficient use of the file service; the accumulation of redundant, obsolete and trivial (ROT) data, significantly diminishes the ability to process, analyze and mine unstructured organizational data.
Northern’s Solution
A number of options are available to assist you in the identification and mitigation of ROT. Northern also offers the possibility to implement workflows that effectively adapt business culture and proactively prevent further ROT accumulation.
Focusing on the initial work of reaching an acceptable running state, where a history of data hoarding must be mitigated, Northern recommends the use of it’s Centralized File Service Management and Distributed Data Management solution areas.
Benefits
The identification and defensible deletion of volumes of ROT data offers benefits in all processes that involve the scanning and analysis of the unstructured data footprint. Specifically related to efforts to realize and integrate information value, benefits include:
| Low-level analysis of large volumes of files can be extremely time-consuming. By initially performing a purely meta-data-based review of the data footprint, and using this review to focus in-depth analysis on a much smaller data footprint, organizations are able to significantly reduce time-lines for information value integration projects. |
| The software and services commonly used to perform in-depth analysis of unstructured data is almost exclusively tied to the volume of data to be scanned. Reducing the initial data footprint has immediate and considerable effects. |
| Data value realization is greatly simplified when file systems are properly maintained – with structures that are transparent and easily navigated, free from outdated and irrelevant files. This greatly improves team and organizational agility as well as reducing effort duplication. |
