by Angela Guess
Sunil Soares recently opined, “For the most part, information governance and big data programs exist in silos within organizations. However, I expect organizations to take a more holistic approach to these initiatives over the next 12 to 18 months, and I am coining the term “big data governance” to reflect this emerging trend. I define big data governance as the formulation of policy to optimize, secure, and leverage big data as an enterprise asset by aligning the objectives of multiple functions.”
He continues, “I believe that information governance programs are just starting to broaden in scope to include big data. Here is a framework that lays out an expanded framework for information governance: (1) Metadata governance – This includes a consistent set of business definitions for critical terms as well as linkage to the associated technical artifacts. (2) Master data governance – This includes a single view of customers, materials, vendors, and employees and a chart of accounts.”
The list goes on: “(3) Reference data governance – This includes data that is relatively static such as codes for countries, states or provinces, currencies, industries, and customer segments. (4) Big data governance – These data tend to be operational in nature and meet the criteria of the three Vs—the data stretches the boundaries in terms of volume, velocity, and variety in terms of structured, semi-structured and unstructured formats. Big data literally span every function within the enterprise.”
