Cleaning up the chaos and elevating unstructured data value
Unstructured data – i.e., text, videos, images, social media posts, and more – makes up the bulk of the world's data, with 80-90% of all data falling into this category. As such, it represents a virtual gold mine of insights, just hiding and waiting to give savvy businesses a leg up on the competition.
The bad news is, this is easier said than done – and if not done right, you miss out on the insight and could open yourself up to greater risk and expense. Managing unstructured data is a real challenge because it's all over the place – literally. It doesn't follow any specific format, so trying to categorize, search, or make sense of it can feel like an impossible task, mainly as there is so much of it. Companies generate and collect unstructured data constantly, and without the right tools, it's easy to get overwhelmed and miss out on valuable insights hidden in that mess.
Historically, there have been no tools to help manage the data since adding storage has been far more manageable. Accumulation rates have jumped sharply in recent years, and the growth will continue due to machine-generated data. That means it's prime time to adopt modern data management technology, such as data lakes, data warehouses, and data governance solutions, to help stay on top of the exponential data growth curve. More specifically, it's time to focus on managing data versus the devices on which it is stored.
Stovepiped solutions don't cut it.
Many organizations are still using stovepiped solutions that are designed for single storage technology. However, these solutions fall short when dealing with multiple storage technologies from different vendors and data types. They lack the ability to communicate with each other and handle the scale and complexity of today's data environments. What's needed is a comprehensive solution that can span the entire environment and provide a unified platform for monitoring and managing data.
When unlocking the value hidden in unstructured data, you'll find some data helps generate revenue, and some data must be maintained for record keeping. The latter represents cost, so why not find that data and store it on a lower-cost system while storing the valuable data on the performance tiers?
In this context, a solution is required to help identify these pockets of data and manage their lifecycle, which will boost overall operational efficiency. Ideally, this will provide complete insights with comprehensive visibility into the data landscape, including details ranging from ownership to activity levels. It should efficiently organize data by tagging and classifying it to align with business and legal requirements, ensuring data is well-structured and easily accessible.
Some advanced systems also offer customizable dashboards and reporting so users can monitor and track what matters most, tailoring the interface to their needs. Policy-based data mobility is a feature that enables precise control over data movement through predefined rules or policies, supporting intuitive and secure data management. Data can be automatically moved to different storage tiers or locations based on age, usage, or other factors, ensuring that it is always stored most cost-effectively and efficiently.
When this technology is vendor-agnostic, organizations can seamlessly integrate it across diverse storage systems, clouds, and applications, providing flexibility and compatibility within complex, multi-environment setups. Putting these capabilities together to build an unstructured data strategy can deliver transformative levels of insight. Those organizations focusing on this goal now will be ideally placed to succeed in a business ecosystem where unstructured data will continue to grow in volume and importance.
