Information Governance as a Service

Software as a service (SaaS), sometimes referred to as "on-demand software" supplied by independent software providers or application service providers (ASPs), is a software delivery model in which software is hosted in the cloud. SaaS is typically accessed by authorized users using a Web browser and generally priced using a subscription fee, most commonly a monthly or an annual fee.

The adoption of cloud technology has rapidly increased throughout the enterprise in the last two years. Forrester predicts that the market for cloud computing will grow from $41 billion to $241 billion by 2020. The range of benefits offered by using cloud services and the maturity of cloud vendors is driving adoption at the global level. More and more companies are using cloud technologies and managed services to accelerate business initiatives, allowing them to be more agile and flexible, and reduce costs.

This is also true for information governance technologies. The newest trend emerging is information governance as a service—the ability to deploy governance capabilities in the cloud as managed services. The days of proprietary governance capabilities that are tied to silo proprietary applications or systems are coming to an end.

In order to remain competitive and maintain costs, organizations must consider information governance as a service. Technologies with a flexible central policy engine, capable of managing the challenges of complex, federated governance environments, are going to be the ones that enable organizations to make the most strategic use of information. These technologies have an enforcement model not tied to a specific store or repository of assets, but leverage standards to enable automatic enforcement across all systems, repositories, applications and platforms.

Information Governance as a Service

Organizations have the opportunity to tame inadequately governed information assets-stored in content management systems, data warehouses, physical warehouses, desktops, file shares, back-up archives, mobile devices, cloud services and even on employees' personal computers. However, this requires a fresh approach and new technologies in order to address the challenges arising from the growing volume and format of information being generated within the traditional IT infrastructure as well as within cloud-based storage systems and repositories.

This is not a pipe dream, nor should it be a long-term vision for the distant future. Some organizations already do this because they see the competitive edge it will bring. In a short time, they have already realized many of the benefits of defining information governance policies with a cloud-based platform—including rapid and predictable implementation, user-friendly experience, minimal IT infrastructure support, ease of leveraging cloud-based data, and automatic, seamless upgrades.

Your Information Governance Program

Information governance programs are sometimes stalled in the organization because they require dedicated IT resources and infrastructure. This often competes with other high-priority IT projects such as social media and mobile. By deploying information governance as a service, it enables the organization to access information governance capabilities, deployed in the cloud and billed on a subscription basis. Information governance as a service eliminates dependence on IT resources and enables consistent governance across all on-premise and cloud-based repositories.

Industry analysts advise that information governance programs begin with policy definition. Policies reflect business and jurisdictional requirements so that information is automatically managed and properly used. There is no longer a need to have policies spread across the organization. A single policy engine must support all of the organization's governance controls—retention, disposition, legal hold, data privacy and security. Companies are able to quickly create a digital hub of all governance policies across jurisdictions and information stores, including:

• Desktops and shared drives;
• Enterprise content management (ECM) systems;
• Databases and data warehouses;
• Email systems;
• Cloud-based repositories;
• Social media platforms; and
• Physical warehouses.

But policy management isn't a one-time occurrence. Policies constantly change due to new business requirements, regulatory demands, rising costs, and high-profile litigation. Organizations stay competitive by enabling the quick and easy deployment of updated policies using only a standard Web browser. There is no prior IT infrastructure acquisition or setup required and it allows organizations to realize the project as an operating expenditure (opex) as opposed to a capital expense (capex).

Also with information governance as a service, companies finally have a repeatable process and platform to help update, validate, deploy and enforce policies. Policy changes are systematically distributed to content repositories without negatively impacting users and operations. The companies who do this best are more competitive and successful.

Reduce Storage Costs

There have been countless case studies on how the implementation of cloud technologies revealed significant savings for many businesses and IT teams. Since companies rely on a third-party provider with proven infrastructure and technology, the deployment of the solution becomes more predictable and less risky. Implementation time is reduced dramatically without the IT requirements and ongoing maintenance.

In addition to a fast and predictable deployment, information governance as a service reduces storage costs with systematic defensible disposition. While it is true that basic storage costs have gone down over the years, the estimated cost of a managed terabyte of data is a shocking range of $14,000 to $17,000. This cost includes the maintenance of the storage and the cost of bringing it within the company firewall, and so on. This is not cheap. The more information that companies defensibly delete, the more they will dramatically reduce storage costs. Further, in the unfortunate event of e-discovery, there will be less content for the lawyers to sift through, saving significant time and legal fees.