by Angela Guess
Chael Christopher of NewVantage Partners recently wrote in Datamation, “Not much of consequence happens without risk. As more organizations realize the value of Hadoop while they look to adopt big data into their technology portfolio, they also need to consider the inherent potential for negative consequences. Big data has opened up a whole new world of risk, but that’s not stopping — or even slowing — many businesses looking to cash in on the rewards. To balance this process, technology and business leaders should know how to manage the conversations around big data risks as well as rewards. When viewed through the lens of risk, organizations have different classifications and considerations to own.”
The first consideration, according to Christopher, is “Data security and administration. Data security and administration are the obvious issues that usually get the first look. But there are many technical layers for appreciating the security of your data, including: perimeter security; data encrypted at rest and in transit; proper configuration for authentication, provisioning, onboarding, offboarding; high availability and failover; bare metal versus cloud. Who is going to manage this environment? Can you find the talent to stand up, lock down and maintain your big data stack? When new big data initiatives are launched, these questions are the first things that IT and your information security team will want to know. Be ready with the answers, and know why these things are important for securing funding and buy-in.”
Christopher’s list continues with “Data governance. How do you manage the ingress and organization of the data? One of the hidden risks of a comprehensive data lake is that data from one source can be combined with data from another to create inadvertent data exposures. The unforeseen downside of bringing in all the data to one place is that existing controls and processes for privacy may be obviated. Data governance is more than that, of course, but be ready to have a data governance strategy, embrace it and partner with your data stewards early in the process.”
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