The poll, conducted at the inaugural Data Protection World Forum in London last November, collected the views of data protection and IT experts on the current state of the regulatory environment regarding data protection and privacy legislation. Key insights included:
· Almost two thirds of respondents (64%) felt the changing business processes and cultural requirements necessary for the uptake of genuinely compliant data-centric practices across organisations were greater barriers than the technology issues. This is despite the fact that technology challenges such as cloud migration, integrating with legacy systems and managing unstructured data were still areas of concern
· Despite this, four in ten respondents (37%) stated that they would welcome more data regulation. More regulation and enforcement could result in better data management practices being implemented in their organisations in the long term
· Meanwhile, nearly one in five respondents (17%) said that the penalties for falling foul of current regulatory policy were still not strict enough. This means that the regulation might need to be stricter to drive the organisational changes required to recognise the real business value potential
“With many businesses still struggling to navigate the challenges of data protection regulations like GDPR, it’s never been more important than it is today, to focus on the core principles of effective data management, beyond simply a tech perspective, but to also include cultural and process elements too,” explained Jo Blazey, Global Data Governance Officer, Commvault.
“Every benefit you can gain from data tracks back to four simple premises: being able to see what data you have, where it’s stored, how it’s protected and what it’s being used for. Compliance with current regulations requires changes in business and working cultural behaviours to achieve this but let’s be clear, better data management is as much a business or legal priority, as it is a technology one,” Blazey finished.