How Much Is Your Data Worth?

How Much Is Your Data Worth?

Even when organizations know their data is valuable, they tend to have trouble measuring that value…

Data is essentially all the knowledge within an organization or company. If you have properly organized data, you’re able to drive growth as you make well-informed decisions regarding your organizational objectives. If you have unorganized data, you may end up wasting resources as you act based on incorrect information. Essentially, your data allows you to measure the effectiveness of any given process, strategy or procedure – giving you the capability to determine whether your approach is working or needs to be changed over the long-term.

So, what is your data worth?

If you are using your data to visualize relationships between what is happening between various systems, departments, and locations, your data is invaluable. Take, for instance, the healthcare field. If a provider notices a high volume of medication errors, they can look at the data and determine what might be causing it, such as high staff turnover rates. You can find correlations between events to develop more accurate solutions. But how do you use data properly? It’s all about taking the initiative to increase the quality and security of data within your organization.

How should you take care of your data?

This means paying attention to every aspect of the data cycle – making sure it’s stored, organized, and backed up from creation to usage to destruction, when applicable. Here are a few tips to take care of your most valuable asset:

1. Map and classify all information to know what is stored, who has access to it, and the value of each set of data. This allows you to prioritize security and management resources for the information that’s most important to you.
2. Take advantage of technology to be efficient in terms of protecting your data while storing less at a time. This may involve deduplication and archiving technologies to keep what you need accessible.
3. Set and enforce the right policies for information wherever it resides, whether it’s in a physical or cloud-based environment, to ensure access, retention, and deletion are taken care of.
4. Implement comprehensive security solutions such as encryption, anti-virus software, firewalls, and other measures designed to prevent unauthorized access to confidential information.
5. Plan for the future with flexible infrastructure that will support the continued growth of your information. This may involve cloud-based services that enable you to add or decrease storage as needed.
6. Maintain a data back-up and continuity plan that keeps your data backed up on-site and off-site for added redundancy in the event of a natural disaster or another event. Make sure the back-ups are tested on a regular basis.

Your data has value, and while it’s up to you how much value you give your data, it’s important to protect it against any and all types of threats, including but not limited to malware, loss, or destruction.

GO Concepts offers Managed IT services for agencies, independent providers, and County Boards of DD throughout Ohio. We’re here to help you organize, secure, and manage your data. Call (513) 934-8235 now.