As cybersecurity breaches make more common appearances in the headlines, it’s impossible to overstate the role that security and compliance issues are playing in the decisions CIOs make for their organizations. Protecting client data is a priority, but there are also other considerations to weigh when choosing the right technology to support compliance.
For instance, the way that data is stored, accessed and analyzed has a big impact on a company’s agility. If the data is locked up so tight that it can’t be readily accessed for decision-making, that can slow down critical advances that spur growth.
One of the big influences in compliance currently is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect May 25. The rules laid out by the European Union include some stringent measures governing the ways that companies can handle data, and more clearly defines what constitutes personal data. GDPR requires companies to allow consumers the right to be forgotten, as well as mandatory disclosure any time there is a data breach.
It’s important not to treat compliance as a task that can be checked off a list. Instead, it should be a continuous monitoring and management focus, with companies striving to reach the next level of protection they can provide for customers.
There were likely some organizations that reached the deadline for GDPR and then found that their budgets were woefully inadequate for what was required to handle data appropriately. Some will spend the following months playing catch-up as they strive to implement every compliance requirement and avoid penalties.
Send in the cloud solution. While no software will make adhering to GDPR easy, there are tools available to make compliance a more streamlined area of management. The ability to set policies in a system and then have it handle data accordingly makes it easier to locate, categorize and correctly handle different types of data.
One of the challenges of cloud technology, in general, is that when using a public cloud solution, the company may really not have any idea where any specific piece of data is being stored. With a cloud solution designed to handle compliance issues, tracking the location of a data item is much more simple.
In addition to helping with compliance concerns, a cloud solution can also aid in the overall strategy related to handling the flood of data and how to best use it to create strategic growth or improve the customer experience.
If your organization is struggling to keep up with compliance, or you simply recognize the need for a more streamlined way of handling it, contact us at Truth Comm. We look forward to helping you handle your current compliance and prepare for the ongoing nature of compliance management.
