Growing need for unstructured data management

BANGALORE, INDIA: Proliferation of unstructured data such as documents, presentations and spreadsheets that contain an organization's intellectual capital is creating critical storage, control and compliance challenges for customers.

This is according to a new study, published by Novell, 'Compliance Cost Associated with the Storage of Unstructured Information', conducted by Ponemon Institute, a research centre.

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The report finds that organizations who fail to manage corporate intellectual capital properly, shell $2.1 million per year on an average to manage them.

While compliance cost varies with organizational headcount, company size does affect the cost burden of compliance with smaller-sized organizations susceptible to a proportionally high rate of compliance costs associated with the storage of unstructured information.

The average cost for organizations with fewer than 5,000 employees is $1.23 million, while the average cost for organizations with more than 75,000 employees is $2.71 million, indicating that smaller businesses pay six times more per employee than larger businesses.

Heavily regulated industries such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, communications and healthcare are susceptible to the highest compliance costs, incurring an average of $2.5 million annually.  

The most expensive compliance costs associated with the storage of unstructured information include: e-discovery, access governance and internal auditing activities. Together, these activities cost businesses over $1.9 million annually.  

The results of the study present a strong business case for file management solutions that help customers efficiently manage unstructured data based on today's regulated business environment.

"Early evidence suggests that companies deploying enabling technologies that reduce the complexity of file or volume management can decrease the overall compliance cost associated with the storage of unstructured information," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute.

"The struggle to manage and maintain file systems on a regular basis is a consistent challenge for businesses. Factor in crippling compliance costs, and it's clear that organizations need a better way to intelligently govern their information," said Sophia Germanides, product marketing manager, Novell. "To reduce the pain points associated with unstructured data, Novell recommends automation based on identity which helps organizations plan and deploy an efficient and cost-effective storage infrastructure as well as execute on compliance and governance requirements."