Don’t Let Your Enterprise Sink in the Tsunami of Digital Data Ahead

- Stephen Chan, co-founder and vice president of business development with ZL Technologies (http://www.zlti.com/), says:

According to the IDC’s 2011 Digital Universe study, the amount of electronic information created and copied across the earth today is an astounding 1.8 zettabytes of data. That’s right, zettabytes: 1 billion terabytes. It’s a concept almost too challenging to wrap your head around in describing what could be a paralyzing phenomenon for many IT organizations. The same report also found that the world’s total volume of digital data is now essentially doubling every two years. If your IT group already feels like it’s drowning in data (and you are not alone), this news comes as no surprise.

Some companies have gotten better at purging their so-called “junk” data and organizing their “good” data. The trick, though, is to make all that data easily searchable and consistently findable; otherwise it has no real value for legal discovery. Despite recent technological advances, most IT organizations still have a long way to go to shore up their company for the continuous onslaught of digital data.

There are three things you should do to bolster your company’s data management capabilities before your system is overwhelmed:

• Find a technology (software) vendor that is focused on advanced archiving technology with a track record of success in archiving projects and a team with tangible archiving expertise. Seek one consolidated solution that maintains one archive and is built upon one highly-scalable platform.
• Arm your company with a software solution that is focused specifically on advanced archiving capabilities.
• Make sure the vendor offers in-house expertise in archiving to help you avoid the “gotchas” and solve each piece of the data management puzzle: eDiscovery, archiving, records management, and compliance.

You can’t afford to waste time or money relying on a vendor whose attention is focused elsewhere, or who really offers just a bundle of 3rd party software that will cause you more headaches. Like many things in life, it’s wise to keep it simple. In doing so, you’ll be able to streamline all of your information storage and archiving practices, gain fast eDiscovery capabilities, and calm the data explosion swirling around your enterprise.