I've seen this challenge first hand at a large organization with many pressing regulatory and legal needs. People do indeed tend to just do what they've always done -- if permitted. It needed detailed instructions, mandatory compliance, and regular audits to change behavior.
Not all organizations may be under quite the same pressure as this one was, but unless you have a clear records retention policy, and enforce it, the indeed: important stuff will get thrown away, and rubbish will pile up.
An age old problem, what to store and what to throw away? I am guessing it may depend a whole lot on the personality. Those who have crowded garages and save every magazine, probably are going to be tempted to save every document, draft or finished. How to change embedded behavior may be more difficult that it seems in any effort to streamline data storage.
Exactly, @DavidS! You nailed the whole thing right there: It all comes down to management at the end of the day. Cloud can resolve -- or create -- a lot of problems.
Never mind final versions of documents. How many drafts must enterprises be storing? This is where a detailed, and enforced, document retention policy can help: "Only retain final drafts of documents" is a good rule, but hard to implement, especially in collaborative environments.
You want multiple copies of something so you're protected in case of a failure. On the other hand, as you say, it creates its own problems.
Currently I'm having that problem with my personal photos; I've made lots of backups and so on, so I have literally 8-10 copies of some of my pictures -- but not all of them. I'd really like a way to go through all my pictures and dedupe them. I've used dedupe programs but I'm afraid to push the button to delete the "spare" copies.
I see lots of SMB's moving towards cloud but without a real strategy in mind. They are using multiple cloud based technologies and just adding more complexity to thier systems. Box, evernote, dropbox google docs all in play togther in many organizations I am concerned that the single place to find data is getting more and more remote as a possiblity for the SMB market
I see lots of pros and cons with cloud storage in the business world.
It can lead to more or less duplication - depending on how it is used and managed.
It can lead to more or less security - depending on how it is used and managed.
It can lead to more or less ease of use - depending on how it is used and managed.
How many corporate IT departments are able to effectively manage the cloud data. Google documents; dropbox and dozens of other services are springing up each day. How many IT departments are keeping up with the spread and managing how things work?
You raise an interesting issue, Alison. I believe we have a tendency to do things just because we can. With the expansion of data storage, we have not matured to drawing the limits and seem to be viewing this as a luxury to be able to store everything.
The value will truly come from organizing and effectively using information. The savings will come from effective storage tools that we select for different types of data, as you point out. Then we will begin to recognize the ROI.
I see cloud storage as part of both the problem and the solution: The problem in that, as you say Mitch, it's cheap and available everywhere, so to speak. The solution, in that it can replace employees' use of onsite storage for some data, improving security and reducing the mass of information that IT must deal with.
Information "smog" and "sprawl" are great phrases.
Cheap, cloud storage can significantly exacerbate information sprawl. Businesses need to get that information under control so they can actually put it to work.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
